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Small business marketing blogMon, 14 Aug 2017 10:11:45 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.1https://muffinmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/cropped-photo-32x32.gifMuffin Marketinghttps://muffinmarketing.com
323212551356326 content marketing ideas for your next blog posthttps://muffinmarketing.com/content-marketing-ideas/
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 10:11:45 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=1079Content marketing is one of the most effective methods of promoting your small business. We’ve talked about the benefits of content marketing a lot, and we’ve even created a guide on how to make your content marketing more effective. Today, we want to delve deeper into writing for your blog. Coming up with original content … →

Coming up with original content on a weekly, or monthly, basis can be a challenge. Sure, you’ll have hundreds of ideas when you first start out, but that inspiration can quickly dry up when the going gets tough. Below, we’ve rounded up 26 content marketing ideas for your next blog post. From making tutorials to creating quizzes, we’ve compiled some of the most effective content marketing ideas for you to try out.

Make a guide or tutorial

Whether your business is in catering or consultancy, the chances are that you’re a pro when it comes to what you do. Make your blog a resource hub for your industry by writing guides or tutorials on something you know that others may not.

As a chef, for example, you could create a how-to guide to creating perfect batter mix; as a solicitor, you could write a tutorial on how to get a divorce. The more informative, original content that you produce, the more organic traffic you’ll receive from search engines and the more chances you have to convert those visitors into customers or leads.

Interview an influencer

Whatever industry you’re in, there’ll no doubt be an influencer or authoritative figure that you can speak to. Interviews and exclusive chats are a great way of showing your business thinks about the bigger picture, rather than just its own affairs, and can help you to attract press coverage, links from other websites and new email subscribers. Check out this guide from Income Diary on how to interview for a blog post if you haven’t done it before.

Create an infographic

Infographics allow you to visualise data and concepts in a fun and engaging way – they’re one of the most effective forms of visual content marketing, can be reused again in your guest blogging efforts and on social media, AND they help you build links.

If you’re not a graphic designer, outsource your infographic or use a tool like Venngage to produce one for free, and remember to write a blog post that corresponds with the topics you discuss in the graphic. Don’t create an infographic just for the sake of it – make sure you hammer down on the concept of your graphic and make sure it’s impactful before designing it, or you risk creating content that serves no purpose.

Create a list

People are lazy and don’t want to spend time searching for the information they want to read. Make it easy for them by creating a list post – whether that’s “top 10 things you need to know about XYZ” or “5 ways to improve your XYZ”. Not only are these posts impactful and more likely to be shared than standard blog posts and content, but they’re easy to write and you can follow the same structure for every piece you create.

Share a to-do list

If you want to improve your relationship with customers and visitors, consider adding an open “to-do list” to your website. A blog post on what you want to achieve and when you aim to do so can be motivational to readers, and add some pressure to your schedule. If you’re building an app or software package, for example, you could write a “coming soon” blog post, highlighting features and tools you hope to add in the future. Not only will a blog post like this increase transparency, but it will spark discussion in your comments section.

React to news in your industry

Share your opinions or analysis on a recent news story related to your industry or niche, and you’ll create a whole new market for your business. Nowadays, consumers want to find content that offers something unique and valuable, so if you can share your expertise and thoughts on a relevant and topical story, you’ll boost your brand awareness and position yourself as an authority figure. Don’t regurgitate news articles on your blog – make it a place where analysis, discussion and debate comes alive, and you’ll be on to a winner.

Content marketing ideas: news is a good way to go

Write a case study

Quality case studies that reflect the benefits of your business and the impact you have had on your clients’ lives can build trust and increase sales. Go in depth and include statistics and testimonials, and you’ll create a piece of content that has a positive impact. If your client has a website, they could even feature your case study on their own blog and give you a backlink in exchange, which will boost your website’s SEO. Case studies are a win-win for all parties – clients get featured, visitors get to see how your business can help them, and you get a quality piece of content that serves to build brand awareness and generate leads.

Share your favourite bloggers and resources

This may sound similar to the “build a list” idea we shared above, but it’s worth mentioning all the same. If you want to position your business and blog as an authority figure, create a list of your favourite bloggers and resources and share them with the world. This blog post idea not only gives your readers access to a whole host of valuable resources, but gives you a chance to reach out to bloggers you admire and let them know you value their work. And, who knows, that exchange could lead to a partnership or guest blogging opportunity?

Allow people to guest blog on your website

If you’re struggling to come up with new content for your blog, or you’re going through a busy period and don’t have time for your marketing activities, consider opening your blog to guest posts. It’s another win-win situation – you get some high-quality content that you can use to maintain your blog and keep customers subscribed, and the guest blogger gets an opportunity to build their name and get a backlink to their website.

However, be careful not to accept any and every blogger – make sure they have a track record for writing good content, analyse the outgoing links in the post to ensure it doesn’t lead to questionable websites, and make sure the content is unique, up-to-date and valuable to your audience.

Answer a blog comment in a new post

If you have an active audience and they post in-depth responses to your blog posts or pose questions, use this to your advantage and channel their thoughts into new blog posts. FAQ posts are popular in some industries, as they allow you to cover a number of questions in a single post, but if you want to produce high-quality, long-form content, focus on answering one question in depth and citing case studies and statistics as and when appropriate.

Write about the history of your business

If you’ve been working in the same industry for a long time, then the chances are that you’ll have a lot to talk about. Write about the history of your business – whether your humble beginnings, the journey you travelled to make your business what it is today, or even the history of your family-run firm. Include photos of your business throughout the years, and open the floor to questions in the comments section so visitors can get to know you on a more personal level.

It’s one of the best ways to expose your audience to your business, show what’s going on behind the scenes of your blog, and boost your ego in the process!

Guest post on another website

If you want to make your blog the best it can be, consider taking some time away from it and putting your content marketing skills and industry knowledge to the test. Start guest posting on other websites to build your brand, get links back to your blog and challenge yourself as a writer. By writing for other blogs, you’ll have to think more about your writing style, the type of content visitors will want to read, and the way in which you approach the topics. Plus, every guest blog opens you up to a new potential audience, which could help you to boost your visitor numbers, email subscribers and, if you’re lucky, customers, too.

Create “link bait”

Simply put, link bait is content that’s designed to attract attention and encourage backlinks – but it’s not easy to create. You’ll need to come up with an awesome concept, add a unique selling point, find an SEO to work with you on the content creation, use graphic designers, conduct blogger outreach and follow through on every opportunity for a link.

Content that generates thousands of links and social media shares is hard to come by, and often requires the help of a marketing agency. However, if you have the right angle and the determination and skills to pull it off, you can create viral content without any third-party assistance.

Bundle your posts into guides

Another idea for a new blog post is to bundle relevant and related posts into handy guides and resources. If you run a web design company, for example, and have written content on how to change your logo, how to add new text to your homepage and how to update your contact information, you could bundle these posts into a “beginner’s guide to editing your website” piece. From there, you can round-up the key aspects of each blog and link back to them, which will improve your website’s internal linking structure and provide one easy-to-digest resource that you can promote to new visitors and potential customers.

Do a round-up of industry news

If you want to educate your readers and help them stay up-to-date with the latest news in your industry, consider rounding up the most popular news in your industry. This could be a weekly blog post – such as “the biggest stories in the hospitality industry this week” – or you could create a one-off post that relates to a particular breaking news story or scandal. For estate agents, builders and property investment companies, for example, a topical and researched piece on Brexit and its impact on businesses and homeowners could be popular.

Create a series of blog posts

Engage your readers and create content that offers value by creating a ‘series’ of blog posts that explore a particular topic or niche. If you’re a groomer, for example, you could create a series of posts on how to look after a dog – pieces on diet, exercise, home life, grooming, general health and bonding could all work together with an overarching ‘dog care’ theme.

Blog series can create a buzz around your blog and keep visitors coming back week after week, so add a subscribe box to the bottom of your posts to alert visitors when new blog posts go live. And, if the series proves popular, you could spin-off into over avenues, or even consider compiling your blog posts and turning them into an eBook for your visitors.

Go back and update an old blog post

The more posts you write, the better a blogger you’ll become. So, if you’ve been blogging for a while, go back over your old posts and give them a refresh. Add more information, expand on a particular point or update the links to more up-to-date and relevant resources.

Updating your old blog posts can help you increase traffic to your website – add images and other visual media to make your post more engaging, update keywords to rank for new terms and improve your SEO, and improve deep linking by linking back to related posts and resources from your blog. These simple tweaks will offer long-lasting benefits.

Create a video blog

Whether you like it or not, the future of content marketing is in video. By the end of 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic – and that number is only set to grow. Video is an accessible, convenient way for visitors to consume content, so you should consider creating a video blog or serialising some of your most popular blog posts into video or podcast format. It’s important to think more like a publisher and less like a marketer when creating content for your visitors, so take your time and bootstrap with royalty free images and music until you’re certain you’ll get a return on your investment from video.

Curate facts and statistics from your niche

If you’ve spent any time working in content marketing, you’ll have no doubt Googled “niche + facts”. Make it easier for others to find facts and statistics that relate to your niche, and increase your chances of getting backlinks from other websites, by curating the very best and most interesting facts and statistics that relate to your industry. Or, if you can’t find any relevant and up-to-date statistics, conduct your own survey and report the results.

We use this technique as part of our content marketing strategy on social media – posting The Daily Bite with relevant marketing news and statistics that our users find relevant. It’s a simple way to boost engagement and position your brand as an authority figure.

Create a glossary of terms

Create a glossary of key terminology and phrases in your niche to help people who are new to it. Check out this list of hair terminology from Seventeen as an example; it’s packed with buzzwords and phrases, along with a short and easy-to-read description for each one.

Offer a free download

Create content that your visitors can download, whether that’s a content calendar, a worksheet, graphics or an eBook. Remember to ask for their email address before offering the download link so that you can add them to your email marketing campaigns. Oh, and be sure to write a blog post that complements your free download – introduce a topic, offer a resource and let them know how they can use your resource in a way that will benefit them.

Write a pros and cons post

Pick a topic that’s related to your industry and weigh up the pros and cons. If you’re a mechanic, for example, you could write about the benefits of automatic cars over manual cars, or the pros and cons of winter tyres. Keep it relevant, go into depth and remember to add a call to action or feature your products or services somewhere in the copy.

Live blog an event

Attending an industry event, watching a TV show or launching a new product? Celebrate with a live blog – a minute-by-minute account of what’s going on and your thoughts. If you can, add images and videos to your live blog, and follow it up at the end of the night with a more in-depth review or feature on the event. Link the blog with Twitter and Facebook so that you can engage your audience, and respond to comments and questions from visitors so that they feel like they’re part of the action.

Experiment with a poll

Polls are a great way of boosting engagement and encouraging social shares. Create a blog post where you discuss or debate a contentious subject, and create a poll to ask people for their opinion. Encourage them to sound off in the comments and keep the discussion going on social media. And, depending on how popular the post is, follow it up with the results and a review of your findings – and choose a title like “X% of homeowners prefer X over Y”.

Create a quiz

Quizzes are another way to engage your audience and create content that goes viral on social media. Use a WordPress quiz maker plugin – some even require your readers to share the quiz on social media before you reveal their results, which is excellent if you’re looking to boost conversions and social media shares. Experiment with quiz styles, use GIPHY to find humorous GIFs to add to your results pages, and use the quiz as an opportunity to have fun.

Content marketing ideas: Buzzfeed does quizzes right

Wrapping Up

Developing an effective content marketing strategy can take time, but with these content marketing ideas, you’ll be well on your way to success. Do you have any other types of content marketing that you think our readers should know about? Let us know on Twitter and we’ll add them to this blog post!

]]>10796 of the best Google tools and features for small businesseshttps://muffinmarketing.com/google-tools-small-business-marketing/
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 10:11:33 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=1065Marketing a small business can be tough, and in the frenzy of keeping your website updated and keywords climbing, it’s easy to splash the cash with a marketing agency instead of utilising the free tools available online. Below, we’ve rounded up six Google tools and features that are essential for small business marketing. Google My … →

]]>Marketing a small business can be tough, and in the frenzy of keeping your website updated and keywords climbing, it’s easy to splash the cash with a marketing agency instead of utilising the free tools available online. Below, we’ve rounded up six Google tools and features that are essential for small business marketing.

If you have a physical premise for your small business, then it’s essential that you sign up to Google My Business. This tool allows you to list your business as part of its directory, and increase your chances of appearing when people search for local businesses in your area.

If you’re a hairdresser and run a salon in the city, for example, then having a filled-in Google My Business profile means that you’re more likely to be featured when people search for ‘hairdresser in Manchester’.

Your listing – which can include opening hours, address, telephone number, directions, a description of your business and even menus and pricing – will also appear whenever somebody types in your brand name on Google, making them more likely to click directly through to your website or call you to enquire about your products or services.

When you sign up for the service, you’ll also receive access to a backend, where you’ll find useful insights into your industry. You can see how people search for your business, what they click on when they see your listing and how effective your listing was.

Google My Business is an entirely free tool, and you can also call a Google representative for free if you don’t want to fill out the details yourself. The idea behind Google offering free telephone support and free listings is that you’ll go on to access its other business services, like Gsuite and AdWords, but this is not a requirement and will not affect your listing.

If you’re working on improving the search engine optimisation of your website, then signing up to Google Search Console is one of the most important things you can do. As part of a suite of tools for webmasters, Search Console gives you useful insights into your domain name and its search metrics, and offers helpful information and tools to help you improve the presence of your website on the search engine. After all, it Google’s recommending you do something to improve your search presence, there’s probably a good reason for it.

If you can afford to spend a thousand pounds on professional web design, then you can afford to sign up for Gsuite and access Google’s premium tools for small business owners. When you sign up for an account (you’ll pay less than £5 per user, per month), you’ll be able to connect your domain name and create as many @yourbusiness.com email addresses as you’d like. All of your emails will run through the familiar Gmail web client and app, so you won’t have to learn anything new or install any complicated email clients.

Nobody wants to talk to business.name.5@gmail.com. It’s lazy and unprofessional, and sets your business off on the wrong foot when contacting potential clients. Custom addresses for your business makes you appear more professional, builds your brand, makes your business more memorable and helps to segment departments based on email addresses.

Gsuite offers much more than email addresses, though. You’ll have access to all of Google’s productivity tools, including Sheets, Docs, Drive, Calendar and Hangouts, making it easier for you to create content, share reports with staff and keep up-to-date on important meetings and projects. It really is an all-in-one productivity package for small businesses – and, because it’s powered by Google, you can be certain of its reliability and customer support.

If you’ve built a website for your small business and are investing time in search engine optimisation, then it’s essential that you collect the data to see what’s working and what’s not. Google Analytics tracks and reports on your web traffic, and offers powerful insights into what your users search for, what devices they’re using, their demographic and their intent. You can even set up conversion tracking so that, every time somebody purchases from your website, calls you, downloads an app or signs up to your mailing list, you’ll be able to track their exact journey and optimise it to increase conversions and sales.

Google Analytics can be set up within a few simple clicks – then, you’ll be presented with a JavaScript code that you’ll need to embed into every page of your website. Inserting the code is simple, but if you’re using WordPress and don’t want to alter your site’s code, you can download a plugin instead.

Pay-per-click advertising is, without a doubt, the simplest and most effective way to drive traffic to your small business website. Unlike content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimisation, which can take time and skill to perfect, pay-per-click offers you an “instant win” – you input the demographics you want to attract, Google will display your advert to searchers and you’ll pay Google every time somebody clicks through to your site.

Why should you consider Google AdWords?

Measurable marketing: you’ll be able to see exactly how much it costs to target a particular audience, and you’ll pay the same amount for every click. You can measure what’s working and what’s not, as you’ll get detailed analytics in real-time.

Cost-effective: content marketing, search engine optimisation and social media can offer long-term, organic results, but for small businesses owners looking for immediate results, pay-per-click can be a cost-effective method of driving traffic

Highly-targeted: You can target the customers you want to reach – whether that’s based on their location, their device (reach mobile users or desktop users), their language, gender and even the time of day they search.

Remarketing: if a customer has visited your site but didn’t follow through on a sale, you can remarket to them and have your message appear the next time they search for your product, increasing brand awareness and boosting conversions.

What are the drawbacks of using Google AdWords?

Knowledge: Anyone can set up an AdWords campaign, but not everyone has the knowledge and experience to optimise a campaign to make it cost-effective and valuable to a business. This is why many people outsource their PPC management

Time: If you’ve perfected your campaign, you’ll enjoy traffic almost immediately – for the majority, though, it takes time and multiple attempts to see the results.

Cost: Pay-per-click, especially in crowded and competitive industries, is incredibly expensive, and you can easily blow hundreds of pounds without finding customers

Public relations can play an important role in your digital marketing campaign, and being able to track mentions of your brand is incredibly useful. Set up Google Alerts for your brand name, and you’ll be emailed every time a blogger or website mentions your business. If you wanted to improve your search engine optimisation, you could then reach out to websites that have mentioned your brand but haven’t linked back to you.

For small businesses that don’t have a big following or online presence, then Google Alerts can still be useful. Set up alerts to your competitors so that you can see when they launch new products or are featured in the media; set up alerts to breaking news stories in your industry so that you can share it on social media; and set up alerts to specific keywords and terms to give you useful resources to use when working on your content marketing strategy.

Wrapping up

Many digital marketers and small business owners see Google as an enemy, whether that’s because they think Google holds too much dominance over digital marketing, they find it hard to rank or were penalised for practising black hat SEO techniques. However, Google can actually become one of your best friends when marketing your own business online. It has a wide range of free and paid-for tools and services that can help you reach customers and grow your business – you just need to use them effectively in order to see results.

]]>1065How to automate on social media without looking like a robothttps://muffinmarketing.com/automate-on-social-media/
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 10:11:18 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=1057Let’s face it: we’ve all got a lot going on. But factor in the responsibility of running your own business, and the chances are that you’re rushed off your feet. The last thing you want to think about is marketing your small business online, but it’s essential that you do. With 80% of consumers expecting … →

But factor in the responsibility of running your own business, and the chances are that you’re rushed off your feet. The last thing you want to think about is marketing your small business online, but it’s essential that you do.

On ‘traditional’ social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, it’s entirely possible to automate your entire social media strategy. You can use RSS feeds to publish content that’s related to your industry, scheduling tools to prepare tweets months in advance in bulk, and tools like Meet Edgar and dlvr.it allow you to automate your channels entirely.

Why you should automate on social media

Automating your social media has a wide range of benefits. Not only can you save a shed load of time and keep your channels up to date, but social media becomes easy – you don’t have to worry about what you’re going to post about next, and you can go weeks without checking out your channels and responding to customers.

Automation also means that you can optimise posting times so that you’re always posting at the right times on social media, and you can be consistent and have content pumping out of your channels every day of the week – even when you’re busy at work or jetting off on a well-earned summer holiday.

With social media automation, you can attract even more customers, as a 12-hour time difference really isn’t a big deal. Running an e-commerce store and want to find customers in New York and Newcastle? Schedule your tweets throughout different time zones, and you’re guaranteed to reach more customers. It makes managing your channels easy.

Downsides to automating your social media

Managing your social media channels using tools is great, but there are, of course, some downsides to doing so.

First of all, it’s easy to sound robotic, or like you don’t have a face behind your brand, and it can also be obvious who’s posting the content.

On Facebook and some Twitter clients like TweetBot, for example, posts clearly state that they were posted by a scheduler (posted one hour ago via Buffer, for example).

Of course, most people don’t care how you posted the content, but for those who do, it can make all the difference when they learn that it’s a robot they’re responding to, rather than an actual human being.

Automating your social media channels can also make your brand look lazy.

If there’s been a big story in your industry, or you’re running an event and want to promote it, scheduled tweets can get in the way and make your channels look neglected.

You don’t want to damage the reputation of your brand because of a post published at an inappropriate time.

How to automate on social media

Now that we’ve discussed the benefits and the drawbacks of social media automation, it’s time to delve deeper.

It’s obvious that most small business owners don’t have the time to spend their entire working day on Twitter and Facebook, so how can they enjoy the benefits of automating their social media channels without making them look robotic or neglected?

Turn off auto-posting

Have you connected your profiles to a scheduling tool like IFTTT or dlvr.it that automatically tweets out news and blog posts that are relevant to your industry? This technique can be incredibly effective for ‘news’ accounts, but for small businesses, it’s a bad idea.

It’s essential that you read and sign off on every piece of content that you publish – if you’re tweeting out any and every news report willy-nilly, who’s to say that you’re not going to be promoting a competitor, or that a piece of published content offends your demographic?

Auto-posting on business accounts never works. If you want to be a news source for your industry, vet every article that you publish and schedule them yourself, or better yet, invest in content marketing and produce a weekly round-up of the biggest stories in your industry, like WPMU DEV does with its weekly WordPress round-up newsletter.

Turn on notifications

If you want to improve the service that you’re delivering to your customers, then turn on notifications for tweets, direct messages and Facebook messages.

Oh, and don’t turn on notifications on your own phone – invest in a phone or tablet for your office or store, and train your entire team to respond to messages during work hours only.

You should never take home extra work on an evening, as you’ll never be able to switch off and will be more likely to suffer burnout. State on your social media channels when you’re in the office, and when they can expect customer services responses.

If you’re dealing with a client or a news outlet and want to be in the know as soon as they tweet, you can turn on notifications for a specific user. Here’s how.

Don’t schedule months in advance

In today’s always-on world, nothing stays still for long. If something major happens in your industry – like a breaking news story or a scandal – and you’re still tweeting special offers and promotional content, you’ll appear out of touch and unprofessional.

Avoid these faux pas by scheduling only for the week ahead, and keep track of the posts that are in your scheduled queue so that you don’t tweet or publish anything inappropriate.

HootSuite and Buffer both offer easy-to-read queues that can be tweaked with a moment’s notice, and both have smartphone apps so that you can manage last-minute changes to your social media schedule on the go.

And don’t think that every tweet you post needs to be about your business. Check out our Instagram, for example, where we regularly post ‘human’ content that has no correlation to the services we offer.

Log in and interact

Scheduling social media posts can take you away from the platforms and to the scheduling tools, meaning that you don’t even need to visit the social networks to keep them up to date.

To avoid looking like a robot, make sure that you log in to your accounts on a regular basis and interact with your followers.

Thank people for sharing your posts, get involved in Twitter hours and respond to comments and questions as soon as you can.

The more you physically interact with your social media channels and the less you automate, the more likely you are to appear natural and improve the overall feel of your social media ‘face’.

Share original content

In an effort to ensure there’s always something new on your social media channels, many people publish anything that they think is remotely relevant – and forget about the fact that their number one job on social is to promote their own businesses.

Share original content, like blog posts, updates on a new store, photographs of team days out, live blogging at the scene of a new product launch or industry expo, or even your thoughts on a new TV show or movie.

Original content takes away the corporate nature of business accounts on social media, and is one of the best ways to show that there really are humans behind the scenes working at the company.

And, if you’re offering customer service on social media, add your initials to show that you’re listening and to add accountability and personality to your service.

]]>1057When are the best times to post on social media?https://muffinmarketing.com/post-on-social-media/
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 10:11:28 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=1022Social media is one of the most effective tools for small business owners. Every time you post something new on social media, you’re opening your brand to a whole potential new audience – and reminding your existing customers that you’re still alive and kicking. Whether you post everything organically or you use scheduling tools to … →

]]>Social media is one of the most effective tools for small business owners. Every time you post something new on social media, you’re opening your brand to a whole potential new audience – and reminding your existing customers that you’re still alive and kicking.

Whether you post everything organically or you use scheduling tools to prepare posts in advance, it’s important that you publish new content when your followers are most active.

To give you a helping hand, we’ve rounded up the optimal posting times for the four biggest social networking platforms today – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. Check out our infographic below.

How to post at the best times on social media

Now that you know the best times to post on social media, you’ll be able to reach more customers and get them to click through to your website. Simple, right?

But what if the best times to post on a particular social networking platform are not convenient for you? Then we recommend scheduling your social media posts using a scheduling tool like HootSuite or Buffer. They’re free, allow you to connect to all of the biggest social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, and give you the tools you need to schedule posts at the most convenient times.

When do you post on social media?

We’d love to know your formula for posting new content on social media. Do you post whenever you have the time, or have you found that certain times and days of the week are more effective for your customers? Remember that the average user spends more than two hours a day on social media, so you have a large window to market your new products and services to potential new customers.

]]>10225 marketing tips for small ecommerce websiteshttps://muffinmarketing.com/market-ecommerce-website/
Mon, 17 Jul 2017 10:11:18 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=1030When you think of small businesses, bricks and mortar companies usually spring to mind. However, with entrepreneurs making their way onto the internet to find their slice of the £133 billion online retail sales pie, eCommerce websites have never been more popular. If you’re running an online shop, whether that’s a clone of your physical … →

]]>When you think of small businesses, bricks and mortar companies usually spring to mind. However, with entrepreneurs making their way onto the internet to find their slice of the £133 billion online retail sales pie, eCommerce websites have never been more popular.

If you’re running an online shop, whether that’s a clone of your physical store or a brand new business, you’ll know that it isn’t always easy getting customers to click on to your website and check out your products. Sure, it’s cheaper to launch a business on the internet and there’s often less risk involved, but that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed success.

Below, we’ve put together five marketing tips for small eCommerce website owners to try out – from using copywriting to boost search engine results pages (SERPs) rankings, right through to running regular competitions to keep your brand in the mind of your customers.

Write unique descriptions for every product

If you only take away one piece of advice from this blog post, let it be this. Unless you have a unique, well-written description for each and every product you offer, you won’t be able to climb the search engine rankings pages and you’ll struggle to generate organic sales.

Making it big in commerce is all about outranking your competition; if you’re not selling a unique product, then you need to be able to demonstrate why customers should click through to your website rather than the competition. Go deep and describe the product in detail, listing all of the features and explaining why they should buy from your business.

Before you write your first product description, define your buyer persona and work out who you want to target your products to. From there, develop a brand voice and stick to it across every product and service you write about. Comprehensively list and describe the features and benefits of the product, and format it in an easy-to-read manner using lists.

From there, you should proof, draft and edit your product description based on feedback from your members of staff and existing customers, and then optimise for search engines using the appropriate keywords and strings. However, you should avoid using jargon in your descriptions and instead follow Google’s best practices for eCommerce websites, like using alt tags to describe your images and formatting product pages using Schema.org markup.

Build a mailing list as early as you can

The benefits of email marketing cannot be undersold, so build a mailing list as early as you can. Having access to potential customers’ email addresses will allow you to promote your new products and services to them, which can save you thousands of pounds in pay-per-click advertising and effort in terms of search engine optimisation and content marketing.

Before your business launches, add a landing page to your website so that you can collect the email addresses of interested parties, and be sure to add your friends and family to the list to provide you with some moral support and for feedback on your marketing efforts.

From there, you can use your mailing list to keep your visitors up to date on everything that’s going on with your business. When you do launch, you’ll be able to advertise this fact and offer a discount code for their loyalty and patience.

A word of warning for mailing lists, though: make sure that you don’t spend too much of your time promoting your products and services in the early days of your campaigns. Overly promotional emails and marketing practices can be off-putting, leading to customers unsubscribing from your mailing list and avoiding your company in the future. Instead, nurture your subscribers by answering their questions, keeping them up to date on the latest news in your industry, and writing quality blog posts that you can promote in emails.

Use content marketing to increase your SEO

Content is an essential part of any eCommerce marketing strategy, so make sure that you polish off your copywriting skills or consider outsourcing your copywriting if you don’t have the time or the confidence to do it yourself.

One of the simplest ways to promote your products is to tie them in with seasonal events like Halloween and Christmas, writing blog posts offering the ‘ultimate guide’ to the season. You can complement this strategy with in-depth reviews on each of your products and services, and keeping readers up to date on the latest industry news while incorporating the benefits of buying your products and services and using them to solve problems.

Remember to incorporate your chosen keywords into any content marketing you carry out, and link back to the appropriate product and category pages to boost your SEO benefits.

Run regular promotions and giveaways

Nothing stands still in the world of eCommerce for long, so you need to work hard to ensure you remain on the lips of your customers. Above all else, focus on delivering the very best eCommerce experience by providing excellent customer service, offering fast delivery times, high-quality products and a strong returns policy – after that, focus on your marketing.

One of the best ways to ensure you’re keeping customers on your side is to run regular promotions and giveaways, and advertise them as much as you can through your blog, on social media, in your mailing lists and by using pay-per-click advertising through Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. These promotions could be special offers, discount codes or ‘flash sales’, while giveaways could include hampers, new products and sought-after tech.

Running a giveaway or promotion is one thing, but advertising it is another. Before you create a discount coupon or a giveaway hamper, make sure that you have the time and the budget to promote it. If you’re offering £300 worth of stock, you need to make sure you get a return on your investment, so do the maths and don’t spend more than you can afford.

Consider remarketing to boost optimisation rates

Remarketing is one of the most effective methods of promoting your eCommerce website – and it’s used by the majority of the world’s biggest eCommerce websites, like Amazon, Topshop and Debenhams. Have you ever added an item to your cart and abandoned it, only to have the products follow you around the web on banner adverts? That’s remarketing.

Google AdWords has put together a simple guide to remarketing that you can follow – all you need to do is implement some code into your eCommerce system, and you can then pay Google to promote your products to visitors who almost converted to customers. It’s an effective form of marketing, and can help you build your brand, improve your sales funnels and help you increase your conversion rates over time.

Wrapping Up

With so many free methods of promoting your eCommerce website, bringing your business online can prove effective. However, that doesn’t mean eCommerce marketing is going to be easy – you need time, patience and skill to find success. Try out the techniques we have offered in this article, be proactive with your marketing and don’t take success for granted.

]]>1030How to repurpose and refresh your social media contenthttps://muffinmarketing.com/how-to-repurpose-and-refresh-your-social-media-content/
Mon, 10 Jul 2017 10:11:38 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=1011Using social media is one of the best ways of building a brand for your small business on the internet, but it can often be difficult to come up with fresh ideas for new content. Of course, combining your content marketing strategy with your social media strategy will provide you with a regular flow of … →

]]>Using social media is one of the best ways of building a brand for your small business on the internet, but it can often be difficult to come up with fresh ideas for new content.

Of course, combining your content marketing strategy with your social media strategy will provide you with a regular flow of new blog posts to promote, but the ongoing task of keeping your channels up to date with new and original content can be a challenge.

One great way of reducing the amount of time you spend on social media but keep your profiles active and present is to repurpose and refresh your social media content.

After all, you’ve already done the hard work by creating original content that you think your customers will love, so why not use it in new and exciting ways to keep them engaged?

What is “repurposing” content?

In simple terms, repurposing content is using existing content and putting a fresh spin on to it.

So, if you posted an infographic on your website, for example, you could repurpose this content by cutting it into manageable chunks and posting on Instagram and Twitter.

By doing so, you’ll open your content up to new audiences and have something original to post on your profile that will boost your brand and increase your engagement levels.

Tip 1: Snip infographics into bite-sized social posts

Infographics are one of the most popular forms of content marketing, and they’re easy to make when you use tools like Venngage.

But after you’ve published your infographic and shared it with influencers in your network, it probably sits there without doing much else.

To help your infographic travel further, consider snipping it into bite-sized posts that you can use on social media.

Of course, you could post your infographics in full on social media, but this doesn’t make for good user experience and usually means that your audience has to scroll and pinch to see what you have to say.

Repurposing your infographics for social media by snipping takes no time at all and can help you communicate key messages about your industry and research.

Tip 2: Sign up for new social networking sites

If you want to help your content travel further, then consider signing up for new social networking sites to promote your business and help you get more out of your hard work. Most small business owners stick to Twitter and Facebook, but sites like Instagram and Pinterest can be just as effective if used correctly.

Remember that every social networking platform is different, and consider how you can use the same content in different ways on each of the platforms for maximum engagement.

Tip 3: Create visual content from your blog posts

If content marketing is your thing, then you probably have a whole host of blog posts that you’re proud of. And linking to those blog posts in your social media posts is fine, but what if there was a better way to promote your content and produce something original for social?

Use Canva or download Photoshop to create your own quote images, memes, GIFs and other content from your blog posts to hook your audience and send them to your site.

One example of how blog posts can be repurposed to create social media content

If you’ve been managing your social media handles for a while, then the chances are that you will have dabbled in graphics and video content to add something new.

Make sure that you keep this content to hand so that you can pull it out whenever you need to – especially in the case of piggybacking on media and cultural events like TV shows, news and trends.

If you run a bakery, for example, and there’s a new episode of The Great British Bake Off, then reuse photography and graphics that you have published in the past to engage new customers and keep your channels up to date. You could even refresh the content you’ve uploaded in the past by adding Bake Off logos, turning a series of images into a GIF or publishing video content after episodes air.

It’s important that you keep up to date on trends and news not only in your own industry but in industries that you can piggyback and exploit.

Children’s nurseries, for example, will want to stay in the loop on all things education and child care and repurpose existing blog posts and visual content if any relevant stories hit the headlines.

Keep your eye’s peeled on Twitter Trends and the news so that you don’t miss out.

Tip 5: Reusing content without making changes

As well as repurposing and refreshing your content to keep it up to date, you can also reuse your existing content multiple times.

Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can be used to schedule posts, but new management tools such as Meet Edgar will automatically repost your existing content again and again to boost engagement and ensure that customers are exposed to your brand as often as possible.

Wrapping Up

Managing social media platforms for your small business can often feel like you’re keeping up with the Joneses, but it’s easy to repurpose and refresh your content for different audiences.

Whether you’re just starting out on your social networking journey or you’re a pro when it comes to Facebook and Snapchat, remember that original content is king.

Whenever you reuse a graphic or blog post that you’ve posted before, be sure to add an original caption or identifier so that your audience doesn’t feel like they’re being spammed with the same content over and over again.

Intelligent repurposing is the best way to maximise the effectiveness of your campaign while keeping your channels refresh and up-to-date. Good luck.

]]>1011How to make your content marketing more effectivehttps://muffinmarketing.com/content-marketing-effective/
Mon, 03 Jul 2017 10:11:30 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=985Content marketing is one of the most important marketing techniques any small business owner can partake in. We’ve spoken at length about the benefits of content marketing and why, if you’re not the best writer in the world, you should outsource your content marketing efforts. And, with our ultimate digital marketing cheat sheet, we’ve delved … →

But today, we want to take a different approach. If you’ve set up your website and social media handles and write regular content for your blog, then you’ll know it can be difficult to find success. Sure, you might get a couple of visitor referrals from Google if you write an informative post about something in your niche, but were those visitors worth the three hours it took to write the piece?

Below, we’ve put together just some of the ways in which you can make your content marketing more effective. Our handy infographic is packed with useful tips and tricks that you can use to improve your content marketing efforts and bring more visitors back to your website as a result.

How to make your content marketing more effective

Embed this infographic on your website

Want to use this infographic on your own website? We’ve got you. Copy and paste the code below and it will appear in all of its red and shiny glory.

So, if you’re writing a piece of content that you want to rank, then make sure that you focus on your audience. Does it answer their questions? Does your content have something that goes above and beyond your competitor’s content? If the answer is no, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and find out exactly what your customers want to read about. Only then will you find success with content marketing. The benefits of search engine optimisation will follow in time.

It’s a common misconception that linking out to other websites can damage your reputation or reduce the amount of “link juice” your website holds.

Make sure that you link out to reliable, relevant sources of information that adds more value to your readers.

So, if you’re writing a piece about your pop-up stall at a local carnival or festival, then add links to the festival’s website, and to other companies and businesses that you think your customers would want to find out about.

Calls to actions are also important, so be sure to add one to the end of your blog post so that you can encourage your followers to do as you say.

Of course, ‘buy now’ isn’t always going to work, so instead encourage people to enter your sales funnel by signing up to your mailing list and acquiring their email addresses. WordStream has a fantastic guide to calls to action if you want to learn how to nail your sales technique and get customers on your side.

Another way to increase the effectiveness of your content marketing is to add visual media – like images, infographics and videos. If you don’t have much experience creating graphics, this might seem like an impossible task, but we’ve rounded up five websites offering free digital resources like infographic makers, royalty free images and fonts to help you create something unique.

The final point on our list isn’t necessarily a point that you can action immediately, but rather some lasting advice that you can take with you on your content marketing journey.

The only way you’ll get better at writing and producing compelling content is by sticking at it – and speaking to your audience and asking them what they want to see from you. Make sure you set aside time for your content marketing efforts every week, even when you’re busy, and ask for feedback along the way from customers and friends and family. If you’re feeling low and can’t face sitting at your computer to start working on your marketing strategy, then check out our motivation techniques.

What techniques do you use to make your content marketing more effective? Let us know on Twitter or get in touch to find out more about how we can help market your small business.

]]>985How to stay motivated when working on your small business marketing strategyhttps://muffinmarketing.com/motived-marketing-strategy/
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 10:11:17 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=993If you’ve taken on the role of promoting your business online, then you may be feeling overwhelmed. Digital marketing can be tough, and unless you set aside the time and have the willingness to learn, it’s easy to lose your motivation and feel like you’re getting nowhere. What’s the point in writing another blog post … →

]]>If you’ve taken on the role of promoting your business online, then you may be feeling overwhelmed. Digital marketing can be tough, and unless you set aside the time and have the willingness to learn, it’s easy to lose your motivation and feel like you’re getting nowhere. What’s the point in writing another blog post if nobody’s going to read it, right?

The simple truth is that making a success of a digital marketing strategy takes time. Whatever strategy you’re working on, whether that’s content marketing, guest blogging, social media or SEO, you need to stick with it if you want to enjoy any level of success.

But how can you motivate yourself to stick to your strategy if you don’t feel like it’s working, or it’s taking too much time and doesn’t seem worthwhile? Below, we’ve rounded up seven ways to motivate yourself to make a success of your small business marketing strategy.

Set realistic goals

Unless you set realistic, achievable goals for your digital marketing strategy, you’re going to fail. And, if you fail, the chances are that you’ll give up on digital marketing altogether.

These goals won’t necessarily be easy to achieve, but they’re actionable, measurable and can give you the motivation to carry on – especially when you start seeing signs of success.

And that’s another point – a small goal, like gaining 100 followers on Twitter – will be much more effective than reaching for the stars and aiming for 10,000 new followers.

You may decide to set both long-term goals for your business (like gaining 10,000 Twitter followers), as well as short-term goals that will help you on your journey. These can work alongside each other to encourage you to put in more time and energy into your digital marketing, and even consider outsourcing your content marketing to speed things up.

Add it to your workload

You wouldn’t start your week without doing a stock check or catching up on your emails, so make your digital marketing strategy part of your everyday workload and it’ll feel like less of an afterthought. If you’re really looking to get organised, you could even download one of these marketing calendar templates from Smart Sheet to plan deadlines and meet targets.

Planning and organisation are the keys to a successful digital marketing strategy. Of course, you can always dip into social media and content marketing when you have some spare time, but a slow and steady approach where you can set aside time every week works best.

What’s more, most small business owners work on their digital marketing strategies after hours – and it can often feel like a chore. Instead of following suit, work on your social media, SEO, content marketing and email marketing during office hours, so that you can switch off when you get home and spend more time with your friends and family.

Don’t put it off

We get it – when you’ve had a busy day at work, the last thing you want to do is sit at your desk and bash out a blog post. But one of the worst things that you can do when working on a digital marketing strategy for your small business is procrastinate, so carry on as normal and work on your strategy even when you’d rather be finishing off extra tasks in the office.

If you care at all about your digital marketing strategy, you probably won’t be able to switch off and enjoy yourself until it’s done.

As WebMD writes, procrastination won’t make you happy or feel less stressed, as the tasks you need to do will always be at the back of your mind.So, get on with what you need to do and you’ll feel better as a result.

Learn as you go

If you’re truly interested in learning about digital marketing, then you’ll be more likely to put in the time and find it enjoyable, rather than a necessary evil. That’s why we recommend learning digital marketing as you go – even if you make mistakes along the way.

The more knowledge you acquire on your journey, the easier you’ll find it to market your own business – and the more engaged you’ll be in making a success of your campaign. Plus, as you learn new things and explore and experiment with new marketing techniques, you could stumble upon something that changes the game and helps you outrank a competitor.

Doing the things you enjoy will make your digital marketing less of an inconvenience and more something you look forward to doing. Play around with the different techniques of promoting your small business online, and you’ll soon see what works best for you.

Track competitors

Looking for a sure-fire way to motivate yourself to market? Stalk your competition.

Keeping an eye on your competition is one of the healthiest ways to grow your business. Not only does it give you an insight into what they’re doing, but it allows you to learn from their successes and their mistakes and adapt your digital marketing strategy accordingly.

For example, if your competition is big on social media, you can gain direct access to their customer base and fans – simply by looking at their Twitter followers and using a tool like Crowdfire to follow them back and market your products and services as you see fit.

Here’s the best way to stalk your competitors and improve your marketing strategy.

List all of your competitors, their websites and social media handles

For social: analyse social handles and rank based on engagement levels. From there, you can create social media posts using the same language, hashtags and keywords – and use social media tracking tools to target the same followers and interest groups

Compare your on-page content (blogs, web copy) to that of your competitors and make changes accordingly based on their keywords and where they’re ranking

Look at their keywords, effectiveness of their keyword strategy and decide which you’d like to rank for using tools like Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush and WordStream.

Monitor your progress

There’s no point in setting aside time to work on marketing if you’re not monitoring the results of your campaigns. And, without data on the effectiveness of individual strategies, like guest blogging, social media or content marketing, you won’t know which is working.

Content marketing: If you’re working on content marketing, then you can monitor progress based on Google Analytics, the number of comments your new blog posts get, or the number of new email signups you get after mentioning your newsletter.

Social media: Twitter and Facebook come with various baked-in analytics tools to help you see how many people you reached, but you can track the return on your social media campaigns by tagging URLs, using micro-conversions and doing maths.

SEO: Use tools like Ahrefs to track keywords and monitor backlinks, and use Google Search Console and Google Analytics for more in-depth data on your success.

Wrapping Up

We’ve rounded up seven ways to boost your motivation levels when working on marketing campaigns for your small business. Take a step back from what you’re working on and do a stock check – you’ll soon see that you’re already making progress and improving your visibility to potential customers.

Whether you’re at the start of your journey or well on your way, stick with it – you can do it!

]]>993How to track lead generation through inbound callshttps://muffinmarketing.com/track-lead-generation-inbound-calls/
Mon, 19 Jun 2017 10:11:35 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=982Guest post by Erin Tynan, Windsor Telecom. In an age where business is increasingly handled and promoted online, it’s easy to believe that marketing should remain online too. Sometimes ‘newer’ and ‘shinier’ methods of promotion like PPC, SEO and AdWords are seen as ‘better’. However, there are other ways to get great business results and … →

In an age where business is increasingly handled and promoted online, it’s easy to believe that marketing should remain online too. Sometimes ‘newer’ and ‘shinier’ methods of promotion like PPC, SEO and AdWords are seen as ‘better’. However, there are other ways to get great business results and it actually involves going back to basics.

Peer in through the window of any sales floor on Wall Street – what’s the one thing all those employees have in common? A phone in their hand. That’s right – the humble phone call is still one of the most effective ways to do business. In fact, 42% of people pick up the phone to call a business at least once a week. You heard right – almost half the population engage with businesses over the telephone at least once a week. Those figures are staggering. Can you afford not to consider calls to your business as a viable marketing channel?

Look at it this way, if a customer chooses to call your business, they are already engaged with your company. They’ve taken the hard work from you by giving you their attention. How good are you at tracking the effectiveness of your inbound calls? Chances are – not very. We’d even hazard a guess that it’s something you’ve scarcely even considered before.

If you think this might be the case for your business, you’re not alone. Inbound call tracking is an area that many businesses tend to neglect, favouring more digital methods like website or landing page promotion through digital or native advertising in the belief that these channels are more trackable.

We’ve got some news for you: Phone calls can be tracked…and far more intelligently than you might think.

It’s time to recognise phone calls as a meaningful marketing channel in their own right. Just as you’d track your ad on Google or in the local paper, there are three core metrics you need to follow:

Conversions

How many of your inbound calls lead to a sale?

Cost per conversion

How much does each phone call cost your business (e.g. advertising spend)?

ROI (Return on Investment)

Based on the amount of sales, how much revenue has your business generated from inbound calls?

Enter: The campaign-specific phone number.

So how exactly do you measure which of your inbound calls are a direct result of your marketing efforts? Enter: the campaign-specific phone number.

By taking a set of unique phone numbers and attributing each one to a different marketing campaign you’ll soon be able to measure each of the above metrics simply and easily, so long as you have the right tools in place.

Depending on the amount of calls and the quality of leads coming into your business, you can decide which campaignsare worth your while and deserving of investment and which should be adjusted or dropped. Just as you would with digital advertising, you’ll be able to use this insight to establish which marketing channels are performing best, whilst saving money on those campaigns that don’t perform so well.

Another key feature of campaign-specific phone numbers is that they allow your sales team to combat the kryptonite of any business – the infamous ‘leaky bucket’ effect.

Picture this: you’ve got a lovely stream of leads coming in and that bucket is starting to fill up with opportunities. Now, what happens if your sales team aren’t aware of where the calls originated? Simple. The leads won’t be attributed to the correct marketing source or channel.

In the same way, what if call comes into the sales team and they’re busy…In haste, they enter the source of a lead incorrectly – Suddenly your marketing team has incorrect information on the marketing campaign or channel performance, which means they can’t possibly correctly adjust or expand from here on in.

With campaign specific numbers, your sales team always know exactly which advert a caller has dialled from. With the right technology in place, you can set up a ‘whisper’ at the start of any phone call to tell you exactly what the lead source is, which means less room for error and you’ll finally be able to see how marketing is driving sales in reality as opposed to in theory.

Now let’s look at this from a wider business perspective: You’ll also be able to see how many calls were answered and more importantly, how many were missed. Any missed call is a missed opportunity for business so by having complete transparency on call activity you’ll be able to run your business smarter.

The insights you can gain from call statistics are almost limitless and they really do enable you to adapt the way you and your team work. By monitoring call volumes, you can keep an eye on seasonal trends and allocate staff appropriately, with call recording you can ensure a consistently high customer service experience and you can even set up missed call alerts for those times where you just can’t get to the phone. There’s no excuse to miss a (marketing) lead again.

Still, think the phone call is a difficult way to track your marketing? Didn’t think so.

Windsor Telecom is one of the UK’s leading providers of memorable telephone numbers and call handling technology. To find out more, head on over to windsor-telecom.co.uk.

]]>9827 digital marketing techniques for your café, restaurant or bakeryhttps://muffinmarketing.com/digital-marketing-techniques-food/
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 10:11:42 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=969When it comes to hospitality, food is big business. Britons will spend an incredible £52.2 billion on eating out this year, with more than £2.4 billion of that figure to be spent on morning coffees alone. It’s fair to say that, if you work in food, there’s money to be made. However, whether you own … →

However, whether you own a bar, a restaurant, a café or a bakery, you’ll know that in the early days of your business launch, it can be difficult to bring punters through the doors. Of course, you’ll get your friends and family to spread the word and get as many people to check out your food as possible, but once the hype dries up, how do you keep customers interested in what you’re doing? Why should they switch up their current routine and give your establishment a second chance when there’s so much choice in their neighbourhood?

One of the very best ways of promoting your café, restaurant or bakery is to invest in a strong digital marketing strategy. Spreading the word about what you do online can be incredibly effective and open your brand to thousands of potential new customers. Below, we’ve rounded up ten digital marketing techniques every small business owner needs to try out if they want their food service business to be a success this year.

Sign up to Google My Business

Google is one of (if not the) most important tool that you can use to promote your food service business. The chances are that you use Google every day to search for ingredients, see what’s on TV, find out about upcoming events and research into your industry. You may not have known, however, how the tool can be used to bring you more customers.

Sign up to Google’s free business listing service Google My Business. It only takes a couple of minutes and allows you to add your opening hours, phone number and directions to search results. So, if someone’s looking for a café in your local area, then your business may appear at the top of the search results with all of the information they’ll need to make a decision.

Not only does Google My Business allow you to edit all of your business information and verify your identity, but it allows you to add pictures of your food products, respond to reviews that have been left by customers and share everything that’s going on within your business, whether that’s a new menu item or a special themed evening.

Signing up for Google My Business takes literal minutes and can bring you big benefits, so it makes sense to do so as soon as you possibly can. And, with free analytics to show off how many people have viewed your business, you’ll know how to target potential customers and keep them coming back to your premises.

Get a digital camera

If you work in food, then you need to invest in a good quality digital camera or have a high-quality camera on your smartphone. Photography is everything when promoting your food online, so be sure to practice as often as you can and even consider investing in an online photography course to polish off your skills.

If you don’t have the right tools, such as a professional camera and a copy of Photoshop, you could damage your reputation and make your food appear outdated or even unsightly.

BuzzFeed generates millions of dollars from their food-related content because they know how to satisfy their audience. Their simple recipes are recorded on high-quality cameras for maximum impact, and as a result, their social media posts look professional, aspirational, and above all else, delicious! If your bakery makes cakes, pies and other tasty treats, then you could consider following this model and posting video recipes to grow your audience.

Get snapping

Now you’ve got your photography skills up to scratch, it’s time to start snapping. Sign up to all of the visual social networking platforms – namely Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat – and experiment with their tools to see how you can promote your brand.

Take tons of pictures of your food and post them on your social platforms with questions and other engaging captions. Check out these Instagram posts from Pizza Loves Emily if you’re looking for inspiration. How can you not want to visit their restaurant and tuck into a meal after seeing these snaps?

Don’t forget to use hashtags and emoji to make your posts more eye-catching and shareable, and follow up on any comments or likes that you receive by responding, following back and getting in touch. The more personable you can be with your Instagram and social media marketing, the more likely you are to win over hungry new customers.

Use ‘traditional’ social media

Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat are some of the most modern social networking platforms and rely on visual media, but the ‘traditional’ social networking sites can be just as useful when promoting your brand. Social media not only allows you to connect and engage with your customers, but it allows you to increase your search engine rankings, too.

Just like search engine optimisation, social media marketing is a marathon, not a spirit, and so you most likely won’t see immediate results when you start tweeting and Facebooking. However, the use of these websites is essential for promoting your food service company.

Facebook: Home to more than a million active users around the world, Facebook is the world’s most powerful social media company. Remember to create a Facebook page for your small business – NOT an account or profile – and put your page in the appropriate category, which will be Local Business >> Restaurant/Café. After selecting this, you’ll then be able to ‘check in’ to your premises and add items to your menu, something you won’t be able to do if you select the wrong category.

Twitter: Even if you’ve never used Twitter for your personal social networking escapades, you can’t discount this social media platform. Twitter users love posting about their favourite foods and drinks, so join the conversation, attend networking hours (list of UK Twitter Hours here) and follow the same visual marketing techniques that you’re using on Instagram and Pinterest on Twitter. It’ll work.

Don’t forget that there are plenty of ways to promote your small business using social media and that you can rely on automation to do the job for you when you’re busy. Tools like Hootsuite, Buffer and Meet Edgar can be customised to automatically post new content from your website so that your feeds are always displaying new content, but don’t overdo your automation or you could risk losing customers.

Post recipes

When it comes to food, you’re a pro. Don’t shy away from the fact that you spend your days brewing coffee, baking cakes, grilling chicken and constructing buffets for your customers – use your knowledge to your advantage and create recipes that your customers can use.

Content marketing one of the most important parts of any digital marketing strategy. In fact, we’ve covered the benefits of content marketing for small businesses quite thoroughly, and advocate that every small business owner dusts off their keyboard and writes a quality post or two that will keep their audience entertained.

Although content marketing can be challenging for small business owners, the good news is that writing recipes couldn’t be simpler. Twinkl has put together a recipe template that you can download and edit, or you could follow websites such as BBC Good Food and Jamie Oliver to get some inspiration for your first piece of content. Remember to take your time when writing your recipe and give your audience as much information about the right ingredients, the right temperatures and the best ways to finish the dishes – the more detailed and informative you can be, the more useful the content will become, and the bigger your chances of it ranking on search engines such as Google.

When creating a recipe for your website, follow this cheat sheet:

Choose a recipe that works for your business

Write down the recipe and practice it once or twice

List all of the ingredients and measures precisely

Document each step in the appropriate level of detail

Take some high-quality images to illustrate your recipe

Consider creating a video to complement your content

List alternative ingredients/brands to give your users more choice

Reiterate that you can sample the food in your bakery, café or restaurant

Promote your recipe on social media and through your mailing list

Update your recipe page with photos sent in from visitors who have tried it

Although this process will take time, content marketing can offer benefits well into the future, especially when other people start linking to your content and giving you more backlinks. You can boost your chances of your recipe going viral by submitting your content to food blogger websites – and you should also consider the benefits of guest blogging to share your knowledge and build your brand outside of your usual audience.

Run a competition

Consider giving away a meal for two, lunch vouchers or a gift hamper and host your competition on social media by asking your followers to share your post and like your page. Remember the techniques we’ve already mentioned above – use high-quality photography, appealing captions and consider using the free digital marketing resources we’ve put together to add graphics and text to your images and GIFs to boost engagement.

Such competitions, depending on the size and scope of your audience, can go viral, and expose participants to your brand and what you do. From there, you’ll be able to market your food offering to your new followers and encourage them to check you out. You could even, succeeding your competition, give everyone a discount coupon or access to a special offer to thank them for their participation and increase engagement from the giveaway.

Reward loyalty

The chances are that you’ve seen the loyalty schemes offered by brands like Starbucks, Greggs, McDonald’s and Pret – but did you know that you can implement a similar scheme within your own business? Look into the services offered by companies such as LevelUp and Flok – both of which allow you to reward your customers for their repeat purchases and exchange their points for freebies, rewards and discounts on future food and drink.

And if you don’t want to spend money or you want to keep your marketing offline, then you could, of course, stick to the good old fashioned hand out punch cards, which are also used by some of the world’s biggest businesses. Both are viable options and allow you to reward the loyalty of your everyday customers without spending a small fortune.

Remember to tie your loyalty scheme back into your digital marketing strategy. Mention the scheme on your website, promote it on social media and actively encourage your patrons to post about their discounts and freebies using your service. The more engaged your existing customers are, the more likely they are to recommend your food to their followers.

]]>969Here’s why your content marketing isn’t workinghttps://muffinmarketing.com/content-marketing-not-working/
Mon, 05 Jun 2017 08:30:49 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=955With more than two million blog posts published every single day, the internet is getting noisy. In fact, with so much content to contend with, it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that the majority of today’s content goes unread, unnoticed and doesn’t deliver results. The days of publishing a couple of blog posts a … →

The days of publishing a couple of blog posts a month on your website and waiting for the traffic to trickle in are over. We’re going through a content saturation – that is, there are so many new blog posts being published, that the art of content marketing can sometimes appear as though it’s lost its power.

Below, we’ve rounded up five reasons why your content marketing efforts aren’t working – and put together some tips for making your content more effective.

Originality

It’s easy to fall into the content marketing trap of “if my competitors are writing about it, I should be, too”. Don’t. Original content trumps everything else in the marketing world.

If you’re struggling to find ideas of what to blog about, then it’s time to start brainstorming and planning a content schedule in advance. Ask your readers and customers what they’d like to see, answer questions that offer value to your audience and consider the content marketing skyscraper technique, where you take an already-discussed topic and add more value to it by conducting more research, updating statistics and adding a unique spin.

User-specific: take a generic topic from your industry and tailor your content to a specific user – in the marketing world, for example, you could write a blog post that is useful only to a particular segment of your audience, like builders or bakers

Perspective: share your unique thoughts and perspectives on a topic or idea

Update: go back to a topic that was popular years ago and add a modern twist

Simply put, the more original you can make your content, the better your content marketing efforts will become. Why would somebody choose to subscribe to your blog when they’re already following people who post content similar to yours?

Style

If you’re writing quality content on a regular basis, then ask yourself whether your writing style is resonating with your audience. Picture your average customer or reader – would they prefer to read content that’s chatty, informal and entertaining, or do you require a more professional tone of voice when writing content for them?

This video from Stone Temple offers a great introduction to finding the best writing style for your blog. Become an avid reader of content yourself, don’t get hung up on the rules and strive for creating a ‘classic’ house style – a style of writing that visitors will recognise when they come back to your blog to read your latest update.

SEO

You’ve got the content; you’ve got the social shares, but your content is still not ranking on search engines for your competitive terms. Why? Well, it’s probably because you’re not spending enough time on your search engine optimisation (SEO).

Every blog post should be optimised for search engines, and you can start that by downloading a WordPress plugin called Yoast SEO. This plugin will add some markup to your website’s code to make it easier for search engines to read, helping you rank higher.

The plugin also allows you to set a ‘focus keyword’ – in other words, choose the keyword that you’d like to rank for when you publish your post – and offer advice on how to add this keyword into your content for maximum SEO effectiveness.

Other simple SEO tweaks that you can make to your content is proper internal linking (linking back to other parts of your website), using the correct header tags (h1, h2) and correctly labelling any multimedia content such as images with alt tags and captions.

Hook

If you can hook your readers into your content the moment they set eyes on your page, you’re much more likely to enjoy the benefits of content marketing. RepCap has put together some top tips for writing a good hook, but you can also draw more attention to your content by writing an interesting opening paragraph, creating an attractive graphic for your featured image or scheduling social media posts that share quotes from your blog post and encourage readers to click through and read more.

In fact, one of the best ways to hook people into your website is to start with your title. A strong headline can make or break your blog post, so spend time on crafting the right titles.

Deliver a promise: If your headline includes “everything you need to know”, then you sure as hell better be able to deliver on it. Don’t write extreme headlines for the sake of it if you’re not going to be able to follow through, as people will be less likely to enjoy your post and won’t want to share it on social media

Don’t worry about your keywords: You’ll definitely want to think about which keywords you’d like to mention in your title, but don’t worry about cramming in an exact match keyword if it doesn’t fit the flow of your writing. Not only does keyword cramming make posts difficult to read, but it can be off-putting to potential readers

Finding a hook for each of your blog posts, whether they’re fascinating or dry, can have a real impact on your bounce, click through and social sharing rates, so it’s essential that you take the time to entice your visitors. And, don’t forget to boost engagement levels on your blog by adding calls to action and social sharing features.

Promotion

Don’t expect overnight success on your new blog posts – it isn’t going to happen. The days of content marketing being the be all and end all of marketing are over, so it’s important that you work hard to put your content in the hands of potential readers.

You should aim to have a set plan whenever writing new content. Of course, brainstorming, planning and scheduling come first, but then you should spend time researching and writing your content. When you’re happy with your blog post and you’ve formatted it correctly, you can then publish the piece and schedule social media posts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to get eyeballs on your work.

From there, you can promote your new content through your mailing list, and then reach out to people who you mentioned in your blog post to get them to share it, too. Finally, you could consider starting an outreach campaign to get links.

Wrapping Up

While content marketing is perhaps not as effective as it was a couple of years ago due to the sheer volume of content that hits the internet, it can still work for your business. Just remember to take time when writing new posts, find relevant hooks, follow the basics of SEO, promote your posts on social media and through your mailing list, find a ‘house style’ that your visitors will find easy to write and produce valuable, unique content every time.

]]>955How to improve your copywriting without wasting timehttps://muffinmarketing.com/improve-your-copywriting/
Mon, 29 May 2017 08:30:14 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=944We get it. As great as the benefits of content marketing may sound, finding the time to write impactful and engaging content for your website can be a challenge. Of course, you could outsource your content marketing to an agency, but if you’re on a tight budget or you’re used to doing things on your … →

]]>We get it. As great as the benefits of content marketing may sound, finding the time to write impactful and engaging content for your website can be a challenge.

Of course, you could outsource your content marketing to an agency, but if you’re on a tight budget or you’re used to doing things on your own, then it’s easy to write off the idea of handing over your brand voice to a third party.

The good news, though, is that you can improve your copywriting practically overnight. You don’t need to attend journalism school or splash out on an eBook filled with ‘content marketing hacks’ to become a better writer – you just need to be willing to learn.

Today, we’re discussing some of the best ways that you can improve your copywriting skills.

Read every day

Whether you’ve got fifteen minutes at the end of the day or an hour before lunch, you should make reading part of your everyday routine. Yep. That means you need to read content. Every. Single. Day.

Subscribe to the best blogs in your industry, follow your favourite authors on Twitter and always be on the lookout for interesting blogs and resources that you can look through. The more content you’re exposed to and the more blogs you read, the more you’ll learn about how to structure your blog posts and the more confident you’ll be as a writer. Simple.

By reading relevant news and content in your industry on a regular basis, you will:

Be inspired: You’ll see what’s working and what’s not, and you’ll be able to take the best parts of other blogs and bring them to your own

Be more knowledgeable: We hate to break it to you, but you don’t know everything about your industry. Reading the latest goings on in your field will give you more ideas for new content and help you become a better business owner, too

Broaden your vocabulary: Reading can enhance your vocabulary and make your own writing more varied and relatable

Understand blogging: Following popular bloggers not only gives you access to useful information that you can take back to your own blog, but it can help you understand the structure of a good blog post and make it easier to organise your thoughts when putting together your next piece of content

Reading won’t make you the world’s best blogger overnight, but it can teach you a lot about how bloggers work and how to write content that your readers will want to read.

Write every day

Just like reading is important for broadening your vocabulary and helping you learn more about how to put a good blog post together, writing every day is essential if you want to become a better blogger.

Not everything you write is going to be great. Not everything you write is going to make sense. But getting into the routine of writing new content every day will allow you to flex your skills and become a better writer – especially if you maintain writing as a new habit and give yourself time to develop your skills.

Even the world’s biggest blogs were started by novices. Take Mashable, a technology and entertainment news website. Their first blog posts, written by Pete Cashmore, weren’t the best, and they certainly didn’t follow the blogging practices we’re all used to following today. Fast forward ten years and the blog reaches more than eight million people every month and is one of the most well-respected and most-read names in digital media.

Improve your copywriting: Mashable’s first blog entry

Instead of waiting for the day you magically become a better writer, you should start practising today and publish content that you’re proud of. Here’s a good routine to follow:

Sunday: Write a couple of posts in an industry-relevant forum. 20 minutes.

If you follow that routine, you’ll be able to fit in at least four hours of writing a week, and you’ll have lots of great content that you can use as part of your content marketing efforts. Plus, forcing yourself to write every day will boost your productivity, motivation and numbers. Just check out this Medium article from Shaunta Grimes if you’re not convinced.

Publish stuff you’re not proud of

If you really want to become a better blogger, then you need to accept the fact that you’re not always going to produce work that you’re proud of. And that’s okay. Not every post on your business blog needs to be a masterpiece – nor does it have to stay live on the internet forever if you want to go back and make some changes in the future.

One of the greatest lessons you can learn as a digital marketer is that you’ll make mistakes. And they’re okay to make. In fact, in one of our recent posts, we actually encourage them.

By publishing content you’re not totally proud of, you’re making the first step on the journey to becoming a better writer. Simply put, if you spend too long on a single post and spend forever making tweaks and changes, then you’ll never grow as a writer.

Putting out content in any form is the right step. That way, you’ll not only be giving Google and other search engines content that they can index, but you’ll be giving your users something to read and you’ll also be opening yourself up to criticism and feedback.

Plus, if you have the pressure of hitting deadlines and publishing content on a set time and date, you’re more likely to spend time on writing content and less time procrastinating.

Do not underestimate the power of guest blogging not only as part of your wider digital marketing strategy but also in the aim of improving your copywriting skills.

On top of writing at least one blog post per week for your own website, you should aim to guest blog at least two or three times a month.

A slow and steady approach to building links and improving your writing ability makes sense, so save the hard-hitting guest blog opportunities on high authority websites until you’re confident you’ll be able to submit something that will blow people’s socks off.

Of course, if you write a blog post that’s very similar to one of your competitors, you’re not going to be able to outrank them, but you’ll be able to learn lessons and become a better copywriter in the process. Plus, not everything that you write has to be published. However, if you do rewrite someone else’s content in your own style and with your own research, you could use it to outrank your competitors and become the resource in your niche.

In fact, that’s exactly what Brian Dean from Backlinko suggests. The ‘Skyscraper’ content marketing technique was designed to help you produce better content than competitors by using their work and making it better – perhaps by doing more research, repurposing their theories in a new niche or just updating the stats and resources to meet today’s standards.

Wrapping up

There are many more ways to become a better copywriter than what we’ve mentioned in this blog post. Simply put, we’ve only scratched the surface, but we wanted to delve deeper into five methods and give you some idea of how to execute our recommended strategies.

The free content marketing certification course from HubSpot is a great resource. It’s a free digital course that includes hours of videos and written learning materials and provides you with an actual certification when you’re finished. Downloading software like Grammarly and asking your friends and family to proof and edit your work before publishing are two other ways to become a better writer; the more resources you have at your disposal, the better.

What tips do you suggest to somebody that wants to become a better content marketer? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook, and check back soon for more digital marketing tutorials and how-tos.

]]>944How to thank people who comment on your bloghttps://muffinmarketing.com/thank-blog-commenters/
Mon, 22 May 2017 08:30:29 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=951We’ve moved on from the days when comments on a blog post were the biggest indicator of a blogger’s success, but that doesn’t mean that comments are no longer important. In fact, in today’s digital age where everything is done through a tweet or a Facebook share, getting people to comment on your blog has … →

]]>We’ve moved on from the days when comments on a blog post were the biggest indicator of a blogger’s success, but that doesn’t mean that comments are no longer important.

In fact, in today’s digital age where everything is done through a tweet or a Facebook share, getting people to comment on your blog has never been tougher.

Comments on your blog are a sign of good engagement – but it can be difficult to know what to do when someone reaches out in the comments section. Below, we’ve put together five ways that you can give back to people who comment on your blog posts.

Respond to their comments

If someone has taken time out of their day to comment on your blog post, then the least you can do is give them a response. Of course, some comments won’t warrant a reply, but if somebody is asking a question or attempting to start a discussion on the topics you’ve raised, then you should send them a quick message back and keep the conversation going.

In fact, responding to comments is one of the best ways of boosting engagement levels on your blog. One of our favourite bloggers, Ramsay at Blog Tyrant, actively encourages comments at the bottom of his blog posts by asking questions and running competitions. In fact, his latest post centres around ways in which you can get more people to comment on your blog if that’s something you want to achieve from your website.

Whether you’re blogging exclusively on your own website or you’re taking part in guest blogging, too, remember to keep checking for new comments for at least a few weeks after your post goes live. Attempt to respond to all new comments within 24 hours, and don’t be afraid of turning off the comments section after a certain period to make your job simpler.

Although this won’t be possible for everyone, especially if you have a popular blog that enjoys a lot of traffic, you should consider visiting your visitors’ websites and leaving a comment on their blogs. Doing so not only gives back to the visitor but opens the possibility of building a relationship between your two sites, which could lead to guest blogging or affiliate marketing as a result. You never know what you’ll be able to get from another website owner, so be prepared to spend a minute or two reading content and saying hello.

Mention them in your next blog post

If someone made an interesting point when you were discussing a topic in your comments section, then give them a shout out when you return to the subject in a future post.

Displaying the voices and opinions of your readers is a great way of interacting with them and humanising your blog, and it encourages people to leave more comments and enter into further discussions. This not only adds more value to your blog posts and comments section, but it can be useful when you’re deciding on what to blog about next.

In fact, it’s the variety of voices that builds a community and enables you to grow your brand. If one commenter discussed some particularly interesting points, then you could go further than mentioning them in your blog, and ask them if they’d be interested in contributing to your website. Accepting guest bloggers can bring various benefits.

Offer a free download or resource

Dangling carrots such as free eBooks is most commonly reserved for increasing mailing list sign-ups, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do the same for your blog posts. If you’re keen on getting a discussion started on your blog posts and want people to contribute, then create a free resource that they’ll receive when they submit a comment. You can doubly benefit from this by asking permission to add them to your mailing list, and that way, you’ll be able to inform them of new blog posts and special offers that you’re running.

Creating an eBook doesn’t have to be tough. You can simply bundle a collection of your best blog posts together about a particular topic, and then design your eBook cover and pages using a free tool like iBooks Author from Apple.

Thank people who comment on your blog with a freebie

Have a ‘Top Commentators’ widget in your sidebar

‘Gamify’ your comments by adding a widget to your sidebar that directly rewards people who visit your site and contribute. This plugin from webgrrrl will list the top ten visitors who’ve left the most comments on your website during the week and gives each of those commentators a link back to the website they used in the URL field when commenting.

This technique is particularly useful if you have a large community, or you publish a lot of content and like to discuss things in your comments section. Remember, though, that by giving people the chance to get a backlink, you’re likely to attract spam comments. As such, you should use Akismet, the leading anti-spam plugin from WordPress that will automatically check new comments and filter them out if they look like they could be spam.

Wrapping Up

By giving thanks to the people who contribute in your community, you’ll be able to make them more engaged and encourage them to join in the discussions again – and even share your blog post on social media so their followers can discuss the topic, too.

]]>951How to make your social media marketing more effectivehttps://muffinmarketing.com/effective-social-media-marketing/
Mon, 15 May 2017 08:30:00 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=937If you search for the best social media marketing tips online, you’ll be presented with millions of results. Most of them will involve scheduling your posts and automating things like following and unfollowing on Twitter. However, social media marketing has come a long way in the past few years, and following techniques that were effective years … →

]]>If you search for the best social media marketing tips online, you’ll be presented with millions of results. Most of them will involve scheduling your posts and automating things like following and unfollowing on Twitter. However, social media marketing has come a long way in the past few years, and following techniques that were effective years ago just won’t cut it.

You’ll need to work harder than ever to stand out and keep your customers engaged. Not only is there more competition online than ever before, but consumers are becoming increasingly aware of brands trying to advertise. Some have even become immune. To give you a helping hand, we’ve put together five ways to make your social media marketing more effective.

Stop automating

Sure, automatically posting blog entries to your social media platforms is fine, but leave the automation there. RSS feeds, ‘X users unfollowed me this week’ and welcome messages and tweets can be off-putting and make your account look like a robot. Demonstrate that there’s a real team behind your account; press pause on the automation and do some real work. Interacting with customers on a one-on-one basis, posting off-the-whim when something catches your eye and responding to all comments and tweets is the best way to go.

Heck, we made the mistake of automating social media posts here at Muffin Marketing, too. When we launched our Daily Bite in April, we bulk-scheduled the posts so that they went out at the same time every day. What did we do wrong? Accidently schedule the same post to go out for three months – and it took us a fortnight to realise that we were posting the same graphic every day at 3.40pm. Awkward. Mistakes like this can be costly if you have a loyal following.

Lose the salesy attitude

The ultimate aim of social media for small businesses is driving traffic to your website and increasing your leads, but cut back on the sales-focused nature of your marketing efforts. We recommend that, for every one post that directly promotes your products and services, you follow it up with at least five or six non-promotional tweets that offer value to your customers. Of course, there are exceptions to this trend; every McDonald’s tweet features their products front and centre, but generally speaking, the less promotional your messages can be, the better your marketing will become.

Start interacting

Remember us saying that automation is bad for your brand? It can also be bad for maintaining the relationship you have with your fans. If you’re automatically posting new content, then the chances are that genuine interaction will be overlooked. Monitor your channels – whether that’s Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest – and respond to customer comments as soon as possible. Also consider investing in a tool such as BuzzSumo or Mention if you want to track all brand mentions, both positive and negative, and get in touch with them as soon as possible. Making customers wait for feedback or help could mean that they go elsewhere to find the same service, so be responsive and efficient!

Social media marketing: interaction is key

Mix it up

Even if you think you’ve found the winning formula with your digital marketing, sticking to the same schedule can be boring. Mix up your social media marketing and try something new every day, whether that’s live video on Facebook, taking part in a Twitter hour or experimenting with GIFs and emoji. The more techniques you try, the more you’ll learn, the more your customers will be engaged and the more relevant and engaging your brand will look to newcomers. After all, nothing sits still for long in the world of digital marketing.

Hand it over

If you’ve been managing your company’s social media handles for a while and you’re not seeing the results you’d like, hand it over to somebody who knows what they’re doing. Whether that means outsourcing your social media management or finding another member of staff who can tweet and status update during work hours, there’s no point in managing your social media marketing if you don’t have the skill or desire to do so. Plus, having multiple users on the same account can help diversify your brand voice and provide your users with more value.

Summary: social media marketing is important

Whether you’re already enjoying some success or your social media posts are bombing, it’s important to continuously innovate and experiment to ensure you’re getting the most out of platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest. Make sure you keep up to date with the latest trends and developments (for example, by subscribing to the awesome Muffin Marketing mailing list at the bottom of this blog post), experiment with your accounts and ask your followers what type of content they’d like to see. Only then will you see that social media marketing can play a major role in bringing success to your business.

]]>93710 questions to ask before you work with a content marketing agencyhttps://muffinmarketing.com/questions-content-marketing-agency/
Fri, 12 May 2017 08:30:17 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=929Content marketing is one of the very best ways of building your brand. Not only does it position you as an authority figure in your industry and give you resources to share on social media, but it offers significant SEO benefits and encourages visitors to keep coming back to your website. However, creating high-quality, original … →

]]>Content marketing is one of the very best ways of building your brand. Not only does it position you as an authority figure in your industry and give you resources to share on social media, but it offers significant SEO benefits and encourages visitors to keep coming back to your website.

However, creating high-quality, original content on a regular basis can be tough – especially when you’re running a business. We’ve already spoken about why you should outsource your content marketing – but today, we’re going to delve deeper into the questions you should ask yourself before doing so.

Read on to find out more about finding the right content marketing agency for your business and budget. The tips we’re sharing today will save you time, money and ensure you’re working only with the very best agencies that will deliver genuine results.

Do they practice what they preach?

A good content marketing agency should practice what they preach. If you’ve found one that you like, check that their blog is regularly updated with well-researched, insightful content – the type of content that you would want them to produce for you. If their content isn’t quite up to standard, or worse still, their blog isn’t up to date, then look elsewhere.

Some agencies will cry that they’re “just too busy” to write content for their own website because they have lots of clients, but that’s no excuse to abandon a blog. It also suggests that they’re probably not that interested in delivering consistent results for your website, either. Find an agency that cares about their own marketing just as much as they do yours.

Instead of going only to their website to see what customers had to say, do a quick Google search and see if you can find genuine customer reviews on websites such as Reviews.co.uk, FreeIndex and Facebook. These review websites are much more likely to show an accurate representation of the brand and its clients – and it can give you a better idea of whether or not the content marketing agency is right for your requirements.

Better still, if you have friends or connections who’ve used a particular agency, reach out to them directly for answers to any questions you may have. Their answers are likely to be a lot more genuine than any testimonial or case study that you find on the agency’s website.

Do they understand my project?

For every good digital marketing agency, there’s a bunch of others that are only in it for the money. And that’s fine – that’s how the business world works. It’s your responsibility to separate the wheat from the chaff and find an agency that aligns with your values.

Before signing any paperwork or exchanging money, be confident that your content marketing agency understands your project. That is, what type of content you want from them, what style you’d like them to write it in, how you’d like them to research and what results you want to achieve from your campaign.

This kind of insight just cannot be gained from filling in a form on a website and waiting for a writer to fill in your work. That’s why we recommend you avoid freelance writing websites that offer cheap prices and fast turnarounds on writing projects. As much as these websites claim to offer an alternative to content marketing agencies, they cannot compete against a time-served copywriter who takes the time to understand the ins and outs of your project.

What is their turnaround time?

If you’re looking for a content marketing agency to help you put together an occasional blog post, then this next point won’t really apply to you. However, if you’re trying to build a website that’s packed with keyword-rich content that offers value to your customers, then you’re probably going to want to place a big order with a content marketing agency. Or, at least, sign a contract and have work delivered at set times for you to publish.

Make sure you understand the turnaround time of your agency before choosing them. If you want them to make some last-minute edits to a piece before it goes live, for example, will they be able to accommodate your request, or will you join their ever-growing backlog?

How much does it cost?

Asking a marketer how much a good piece of content costs is like asking how long a piece of string is. It depends on the amount of time and resources you want your content marketing agency to devote to each piece of content, and it also depends on their experience level and current availability. Therefore, there’s great disparity in the content marketing world. You can find an experienced agency that will charge hundreds of pounds for a single blog post, and find others that will put together twenty similar-quality pieces for the same price.

Before you start prospecting agencies, work out what your budget is. You’ll be able to find an agency that can produce a weekly blog post for less than £30, but your budget can be stretched to allow higher quality writing, you should do so. Not only does long-form, well-researched content perform better on search than thin content, but it means you can offer real value to your audience and give them a reason to keep coming back to your site.

What is their revision policy?

The chances are that the content marketing agency you choose will research your industry and find out exactly what your audience will want to read, but they won’t always get it right. Make sure you find out about the revision policy of the agency before you order a bulk load of content – it could prove costly if you’re charged for every edit that you request.

One of the best ways to avoid mistakes is writing a thorough brief for each piece of content, or at least for the initial project so that the agency understands exactly what you’re looking for. Trust us: there’s nothing worse than writing a great piece of content, only to have it torn to pieces because it didn’t fit an imaginary brief that the client forgot to send. Just because you’re outsourcing your content marketing, it doesn’t mean you’re outsourcing the responsibility for your content. The best results come from collaboration between the content marketing agency and the company that’s paying for the content.

Can I get a trial?

Every content marketing agency has its own writing style and way of doing things, and while you’ll probably be able to get an idea of what they can do from their samples, you should ask for a sample or trial of your own. We’re not saying that this piece will be free. In fact, you probably will have to pay for it – especially if you later go on to publish it. But it’s better to lose out on the cost of a single piece than buying in bulk and regretting it when the content delivered doesn’t match your expectations and doesn’t feel like your brand.

In fact, you may decide to ask for trials or samples from a few different agencies to test the water and find what works for you. That way, you can experiment with different styles and determine your brand voice, if you don’t already have a writing style guide in place.

What will I need to do when the content goes live?

Your marketing efforts don’t end when the content goes live on your website. Really, that’s when the job of a content marketer really begins. Not only do you need to share your new blog on search engines, add internal links between old posts and new posts and let your email subscribers that new content has gone live, but you also need to consider outreach if you want to use your new post to build links. Some content marketing firms will take control of these tasks alongside writing the content, so ask them what they can do for you.

Remember, though, that submitting new blogs to article directories, scheduling social media posts and letting writers know that they’ve been mentioned in your content isn’t difficult, and it may prove more cost-effective to complete these tasks on your own.

Will I own the content?

It sounds obvious that you’ll automatically own the copyright to content that you pay for, but that isn’t always the case. Make sure you understand the legalities behind your content marketing firm – and also be sure to check that they won’t be using your content on other websites, or as samples or on case study pages. As Moz writes, site owners can suffer ranking and traffic losses if Google indexes the same content more than once, so your marketing efforts could be in vein if the blog is going to be used elsewhere, too.

Be sure to read the terms and conditions of the marketing firm, and check that copyright will be handed over to you as soon as the content is delivered. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

Would it be easier to write the content myself?

If you’ve been reading up on content marketing, then the chances are that you know a little about it already. You don’t need to be an SEO whizz or journalist to create readable, shareable, valuable content that will help you rank on search engines. If you’re capable of producing high-quality content on your own, then there’s little point in outsourcing to a third-party company. After all, you know your business better than anyone else.

You could even consider hiring a reputable proof-reader on a freelancing website to double-check your content before it’s published, or an SEO expert to optimise your keywords and copy to maximise your chances of ranking on search engines.

The more you can do yourself, the cheaper it will be. You can then invest the money that you would have spent producing high-quality content on promoting it. Facebook Ads is a popular choice, or you could consider a tool such as StumbleUpon where to pay per eyeball.

Summary: select your content marketing agency wisely

Outsourcing your content marketing offers various benefits, not least saving you time and ensuring you’re posting only the highest quality content on your website. But finding the right agency can be a challenge. Don’t dive in head first. Always do your research and be prepared to try out multiple agencies before you find one you’re happy with.

What are your experiences of working with a content marketing agency? Let us know your top tips on social media.

]]>929How to start guest blogging as a small business ownerhttps://muffinmarketing.com/guest-blogging/
Mon, 08 May 2017 09:30:30 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=882When it comes to launching a new brand online, finding the right exposure can be a challenge. Nowadays, there’s more competition on the internet than ever before – in fact, more than 140,000 new websites launch every day, and more than two million blog posts are published a day, so you’ll need to work hard … →

Of course, paying for advertising and sponsorship is a great way of helping your new website gain some traction, but if you’re on a limited budget or have no budget at all, something like that won’t be possible. That’s why small business owners should, alongside investing in their own content marketing strategy, consider guest blogging on third-party websites to boost organic traffic, build backlinks and increase brand awareness. Here’s how.

Decide whether you should guest blog

Before you reach out to bloggers about contributing to their websites, you should first decide whether it’s the right strategy for your business. You may think that, by writing a piece of content and submitting it to a third party website, you’ll receive endless traffic back to your website and you’ll make money from your post. But the chances of that happening, even on some of the world’s biggest contributor-friendly publishers, are slim.

At best, guest blogging can give you a high authority backlink to your website, put your name and brand in the face of potential customers and give you an opportunity to share wisdom with the blog’s readership. At worst, your blog will be read by nobody and the link you included in your content will be no-followed, meaning no backlink to help your website climb search engine results pages. Unless you’re prepared for and are comfortable with the latter of those options happening, then guest blogging is not for you.

Determine what you want out of guest blogging

It’s easy to be blind sighted by the fact you’ve been offered a guest blogging opportunity on one of your favourite websites, but it’s important that you determine what you want out of your guest blogging strategy. If it is purely to increase brand awareness, then make sure you have the opportunity to mention your products and services in your content – or at least in the guest author box that’s most commonly used in guest blogging posts.

If you want to receive a backlink for each of your guest blogs, then your strategy will be significantly different to what it would be if you’re just looking to build your profile and get your name out there. For the former, you’ll need to work harder because convincing webmasters to accept your guest posts isn’t always easy – especially now that many know they can charge for such luxury. Knowing what you want from your strategy is important.

Another factor to take into consideration is the links you’ll be building. Even if your ultimate aim isn’t to achieve more backlinks to your website (that’s a good strategy to have), you will most likely be asked to link back to your website at the end of your post. Knowing which keywords to use and which pages to link to are important here – sticking to your homepage and using a branded keyword (such as your brand or product name) is the best option.

Finally, you should be willing to be honest with bloggers and publishers about the reasons why you want to blog on their website. Of course, flattering them with a great guest blog pitch is the best way, but being straightforward and blunt about what you want from them in return is the best way to deal with guest blogging. The worst that they can do is say no.

Research authority websites in your industry

Now that you’ve decided why you want to start guest blogging, you’ll need to begin researching authority websites in your niche or industry. When you’re in the beginning stages of the guest blogging process, it’s easy to accept any and every blogging opportunity, but you should be selective if you want to save yourself time, money and enjoy the maximum return on your guest blogging investment. Simply blogging on every website you come across won’t grant you the same benefits as being strategic and intelligent with your article topic selections and chosen linked keywords.

Google, of course, is a great starting point for your guest blogging strategy. Simply type in the name of your industry followed by guest blogs to see who’s offering to publish such content, and you’ll likely be presented with hundreds of potential websites that you could reach out to. Another great way is to use a backlinks checker tool on some of your biggest competitors’ websites, and look for opportunities based on where they acquired backlinks. It’s a cheeky way to do guest blogging, but it can save you time and help you rank.

Once you’ve found a couple of websites that you’d like to guest blog on, make sure you read through their guest blogging guidelines if they have any, and check out other guest blogs on their website so you can get a feel for what they’re looking for. If you have time, interacting with the blog on social media and in their comments section can also be beneficial – some websites only accept guest blog pitches from valued members of their communities.

Before you go any further and submit an application to write for their website, do some more research. Use SEO tools to find out the website’s domain authority, and check out their social media platforms to make sure they have an active, engaged audience. There’s little point in blogging for a website that’s inactive or that nobody visits. One final check to make, too, is the quality of existing content on the website. If the website is packed with thin content, or it has too many contributions from guests, reconsider whether it’s the right place for you. Guest blogging on a dodgy website could land you a penalty from Google.

Pitch a guest blog to a website

Now for the interesting part. Before we delve right into pitching a guest blog, let’s spell it out to you. You’re asking for free promotion from a blogger who probably knows nothing about you. Yes, you’ll be providing them with high-quality content, but they’ve got to take the time to respond to your emails, edit your copy and promote it on their website. Don’t think that you’re doing the blogger a favour by writing content for them, and don’t assume that you’ll automatically be accepted just because you’re willing to work for free. Oh, and one more thing: there’s quite a strong chance that the webmaster will ignore your guest blogging submission, or they simply don’t want to feature you on their website. They might also ask for payment in return for a guest blog – and that’s never something you should do.

If you’ve found a high-quality website that’s accepting guest blogs, then it’s time to make your pitch. Remember: before you do, you should check out their website, read contributor guidelines and familiarise yourself with what they’ve been doing. You don’t want to be caught out by not doing your research, and it only takes a couple of minutes to check. Here are a couple more rules that you’ll need to follow when sending your email.

Personalise – a one-size-fits-all approach is transparent

Make your email about them – talk about their website and content

Don’t waffle on – people are busy, so keep your message short and sweet

Send your email from a professional email account – no @hotmail.com allowed

Send your email via your mailbox instead of a contact form if possible, as you’ll be sure that it’s sent and you’ll know when they respond. Choose a simple subject, like ‘Guest blogging on X website’, and keep your email short and sweet. The below template is just a basic guide – you should aim to personalise each of your emails to increase your chances of getting a response. Keeping a record of who you have emailed and when is also a sensible idea – sending the same webmaster a guest blogging pitch three times doesn’t look professional and will damage your chances of securing a guest blogging placement, even if your content is great.

Hi [name],

I hope you don’t mind me reaching out to you like this, but I saw your recent post on [subject matter], and I had an idea for a follow-up post that would talk about [subject]. I’ve been working in the [industry] industry for a number of years now, and I’d love to contribute a piece of content if that’s something that would interest you?

Thanks for reading, and keep up the great work. I look forward to hearing from you.

[Name, website, email address, telephone number].

Whether or not you decide to follow-up your email in a week’s time is up to you. While you don’t want to overwhelm a blogger with emails, sometimes they’re busy and don’t always get a chance to respond. A gentle push is totally fine, but don’t overdo it. One follow-up email is where you should leave it – after that, accept defeat and move on to the next site.

As for when you should send your email, opt for a Tuesday morning. CoSchedule’s data suggests that Tuesday is the day you’re most likely to get a response, while a mid-morning time of 10 am or 11 am will stand you the biggest chances of your email being seen by your blogger.

Write the post – and include a link back to your website

If you’ve received a response from your blogger and they’re happy for you to contribute a piece of content to the website, then it’s time to start writing. Some digital marketers write bulk posts in advance that they can send off when guest blog opportunities arise, but sitting down and writing content for each individual guest blog is the best way to ensure you’re delivering something that will speak to their audience and keep the blogger happy.

Make sure that you stick to the guest blogging guidelines at all times – if you don’t, there’s a strong chance that your blogger won’t publish your content, or that they’ll ask for several amends before they’re happy with it. You should also aim to include a link or two back to their website in your post, as internal linking is important for search engine rankings. Finally, when you’re happy with your post, consider adding a link back to your website (and choose a relevant keyword that you’re trying to rank for), and also write an ‘about the author’ paragraph that the blogger can use when they upload your content to their website.

As soon as you’re finished, send your completed content to your blogger in a Word document, and, if required, include any HTML code for images and links to make their lives easier. Give them time to review your post and publish it – if you don’t hear back in a couple of weeks, give them a gentle reminder and ask if there’s anything you can do to help.

You should, then, have your first guest blog published on another website and now it’s time to monitor engagement and help boost its chances of success.

Monitor engagement and give it a boost

Just as you would with any content you produce for your own blog, it’s important to monitor engagement on your guest blog – at least for the first week or two. Respond to any comment, thank people on social media who share your content and be around to answer any questions people may have about what you’ve written. This is the perfect opportunity for positioning yourself as an authority figure in your industry, and a chance for you to convert some of your guest blog’s fans into readers of your own blog and content.

If you want to boost your blog’s chances of success, then you should also take part in some light promotion. While we’re not suggesting that you pay to promote a third-party website, you should share your new blog post on social media and tell your email subscribers about it, too. Not only does it put more eyeballs on the content you’ve written (and potentially give you more clicks back through to your website), but it shows the webmaster that you’re grateful for the opportunity to write on their website, and open you up to guest blogs on other websites. A single successful guest blog post can open doors to countless other opportunities, so keep your eyes open and be ready for your next move.

Track your guest blog’s progress over time

The first few weeks of your new blog post are likely to be the most fruitful, but if you’ve created a piece that’s gone down well on social media or is evergreen, then you’ll likely enjoy comments, social media shares and traffic back to your website for a long time to come. Make sure you keep an eye on the post – add it to your favourites and keep a Word document or Google Sheets spreadsheet to record your guest blogging process. Also be sure to keep a copy of the original blog on your computer or cloud drive – if, for any reason, the blog is removed from the website or the website disappears, you’ll be able to use your blog on your own website or for another guest blogging opportunity. It’s simple.

Summary: guest blogging for small businesses

This step-by-step guide to guest blogging should send you on your way to success, but it’s only the beginning of your journey. Sourcing the right guest blogging opportunities and writing engaging, high-quality content with contextual links is perhaps the biggest challenge you’re likely to face, but by creating content on a regular basis and always keeping an eye out for new opportunities, you’ll be able to create high-quality backlinks and land placements on websites that will put your brand in front of potential customers. Good luck.

]]>882Why you should outsource your content marketinghttps://muffinmarketing.com/outsource-content-marketing/
Fri, 05 May 2017 09:30:19 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=876Content marketing is one of the most important marketing techniques for small business owners. Not only is it relatively inexpensive when compared to pay-per-click, sponsorship and offline marketing tactics like newspaper advertising and cold calling, but it’s easy to do. However, as businesses invest more money into their content marketing than ever before, some have … →

]]>Content marketing is one of the most important marketing techniques for small business owners. Not only is it relatively inexpensive when compared to pay-per-click, sponsorship and offline marketing tactics like newspaper advertising and cold calling, but it’s easy to do.

You’ll save time

The average blog now takes more than three hours to write, while some bloggers admit to spending more than six hours on perfecting their content. Think about what you could be doing with that time if you weren’t worried about your blog – finishing off accounts, attending a networking conference, spending time with your family.

If your time is worth more than what it would cost to hire somebody to write your blog for you, then it makes sense to outsource. The Content Direction Agency suggests that you could avoid outsourcing your content marketing to a content factory on Fiverr, or using a freelancer without prior experience or recommendation, as “you could get a great piece of work or a really bad one”. Finding the right content marketing agency is down to you.

Outsource your content marketing: time is everything

You’ll benefit from their experience

Let’s face it – we can’t all spend our time researching the latest trends and producing things such as infographics, white papers and expert round-ups. When you outsource your content marketing, you can be sure that your brand will be up-to-date with the latest trends and that your marketing buck will go further because of your marketer’s expertise.

You could, of course, follow a small business marketing blog and learn the ins and outs of content marketing yourself, but decide whether or not this time and energy could be better invested in other areas of your business that will make you more money and more efficient.

Your content will be researched

Granted, you’ll probably know more about your business and your industry than any content marketer, but what about research? Any good blog entry will be packed with statistics, resources and opinions from industry figures. If you don’t have the time to research before you write, then the content you produce could be one-sided, business-focused or even factually incorrect. When you outsource, you know research will be done.

Your writer will be accountable if something goes wrong

Content marketing is a relatively inoffensive form of marketing. Come up with a title, do some research, create a piece of content that answers a question or sparks a discussion and you’re done. Sometimes, however, content marketing can go wrong. Perhaps a piece you’ve published was badly researched, factually incorrect or even outright offensive. By outsourcing, you can be sure that controversial content (if this is a content marketing tactic you’re considering using) is dealt with accordingly. If it isn’t, they’ll have to explain why and risk losing you as a client and damaging their reputation as a content marketing agency.

They’ll post it for you

This one’s not as important as some of the other points we’ve raised in this article, but it’s good to mention nonetheless. Carefully formatting your article, including links back to other parts of your website, uploading images, writing an effective meta description and choosing the right focus keyword is important for both usability and search engine optimisation. When you work with a content marketing agency, they’ll most likely offer to upload the content directly to your website so you don’t have to, which will save time and ensure that HTML codes, SEO tags and image descriptions are used in their correct manner.

Here’s an alternative if your content marketing agency won’t upload for you, or charges extra for this service. Ask for blog posts to be delivered in Microsoft Word, and you can set up remote publishing and a connection with your blog so your new posts are published immediately. This way, you won’t need to log into WordPress and fiddle around with complicated options.

Simply put, if your competitors are publishing high-quality, long-form content on a regular basis and are beating you in search engine results pages, you need to do the same. And, because content writing is most likely not your area of expertise, you should hand over the work to a third-party company who can produce content that will help you rank.

Summary: outsourcing makes sense

Content marketing can be free if you have the time to learn and have a natural flair for writing, but outsourcing to a marketing agency doesn’t always have to be expensive. If you want to fill your website with in-depth, keyword-rich content that will increase your chances of ranking for key terms in your industry, then it makes sense to outsource.

What are your experiences of outsourcing content marketing? Let us know on social media.

]]>876Your marketing strategy needs to change this summerhttps://muffinmarketing.com/marketing-strategy-summer/
Mon, 01 May 2017 08:40:38 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=851It may feel like we’ve just waved goodbye to Christmas, but summer is just around the corner. The season officially begins on June 21 and brings with it lighter nights, better weather and the holiday season. For small business owners, the summer months typically go one of two ways: you’ll be super busy and need … →

]]>It may feel like we’ve just waved goodbye to Christmas, but summer is just around the corner. The season officially begins on June 21 and brings with it lighter nights, better weather and the holiday season. For small business owners, the summer months typically go one of two ways: you’ll be super busy and need to hire some additional staff to help you meet demands, or you’ll be quiet and waiting patiently for autumn to arrive.

One of the best ways to keep your business ticking over during the summer is to invest in marketing. It’s true that your small business marketing strategy will need to be adapted during the warmer months of the year in order to appeal to your customers – and here’s why you should do exactly that.

Do the seasons really affect marketing?

You may think that Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Easter are the only times of the year where our marketing efforts need to be ramped up, but you’d be wrong. The time of the year have a major impact on the success of your marketing efforts, and the people who you should be targeting can change, too. A toy shop in the run up to Christmas, for example, should tailor their marketing efforts towards parents, while in the summer, appeal to children who want a new toy to keep them occupied. The same is true for almost every industry.

Many small business owners report reduced trade in the first few months of the year, most seemingly because of tightened budgets after the winter season. It’s true that seasons affect spending and consumer attitudes both financially and physiologically, so you need to adapt your marketing efforts to ensure you’re hitting the right people at the right times.

Young people and seasonal workers have more time

Marketing strategy: students have free time during the summer

When schools, colleges and universities break for the summer in July, young people suddenly have a lot more time on their hands – and that’s not mentioning seasonal workers such as teachers, bus drivers, cleaners and caterers. The majority of this audience will be looking to keep themselves busy during their free time, through entertainment and leisure activities like shopping, eating out and travelling. If you operate in one of these industries, then market your products and services to this audience through digital marketing techniques like social media, content marketing, pay-per-click banner advertisements and video marketing. UCAS suggests that there are more than half a million students at any time, so your audience could be huge.

We spend less time on our phones

The average American may spend almost five hours a day on their smartphone, but things often change during the summer. With brighter nights and more socialising to be done, consumers are putting down their phones and spending time in the real world. You need to make sure your marketing efforts are doubly effective so that, when your audience does come across your brand online, your messages are as impactful as possible.

It’s little wonder why TV executives save their best shows for the autumn and winter months, as they know that it’s when more people will be sat at home looking for something to do. If you’re working hard on a content marketing strategy for your business, perhaps a series of video tutorials or an infographic, then consider holding back this content for a time when you know you’ll make a bigger impact with it. Strategy is everything.

If you’re expecting a raft of tourists in your city during the summer, for example, then consider guest blogging on relevant travel websites, creating tourist hotspot guides, and reach out to travellers on social media to let them know what you can offer them. The more proactive you are, the bigger the reward you’ll be able to receive.

For online businesses, you too can capitalise on the summer buzz by offering products at discounted rates, creating limited edition ‘summer’ lines of your most popular items and running promotions and discounts to get rid of last season’s stock.

With only so much disposable income, you’ve got to word hard to keep customers on your side months. If you’re expecting sales to fall, then consider running a promotion such as a discount, social giveaway or form of audience interaction. That way, even if consumers don’t buy from you, you will have increased brand awareness and will be able to reap the benefits in the future.

Summary

While we’re not saying every business will be affected by the summer, it’s important to review your digital marketing efforts to ensure you’re reaching the right people at the right time, and decide whether or not seasonality will damage your sales. Be prepared to take your small business marketing in a different direction during the summer, and don’t be afraid of trying something new if you think you’ll be able to enjoy a return.

]]>851Why small businesses should use content marketinghttps://muffinmarketing.com/small-business-content-marketing/
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 09:30:53 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=870Whether you’re running a small business or a multinational firm, content marketing is important. So important, in fact, that UK businesses are expected to spend £350 million on it every year by 2020. Content marketing is one of the very best forms of promoting your brand online. It’s cheaper to produce than investing in pay-per-click, … →

Content marketing is one of the very best forms of promoting your brand online. It’s cheaper to produce than investing in pay-per-click, video advertising and offline marketing alternatives, and its results can be long-lasting depending on the quality and subject matter of your content. For example, if you write a piece of evergreen content that offers something valuable to your readers, you can expect it drive traffic to your website for years to come. That’s why marketers are spending money than ever on producing only the very best content – content that requires hours of research, drafting and edits to get right.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing can drive higher conversion rates and increased brand recall, both of which are essential if you want to make money online and help your brand stand out from the competition.

If you want to find out how content can transform the fortunes of your business, then fear not. Below, we’ve put together an infographic highlighting the benefits of content marketing for small businesses. Feel free to download, print and share this infographic online if you find it useful – all we ask for is a link back if you do.

INFOGRAPHIC: Content marketing for small businesses

Embed this on your own website

Want to use this infographic on your own website? Just copy and paste the code below, and let us know if you do!

Content marketing: What’s next?

Now that you’ve seen the benefits of content marketing for your small business, it’s time to implement a strategy. Our ultimate digital marketing cheat sheet is jam-packed with information on promoting your brand online – including how to design and implement a content marketing strategy that will generate leads and bring customers back to your website time and time again.

What are the biggest benefits of content marketing for your business? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook, and stop by our small business marketing blog again to find out more techniques for improving digital marketing for your small business.

]]>870Customer loyalty and digital marketinghttps://muffinmarketing.com/customer-loyalty-digital-marketing/
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 11:11:12 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=859Today, small businesses are struggling. Struggling to get their voices heard above the noise of multinational competitors. Struggling to catch up and adopt the marketing techniques that have been mastered by digital-savvy agencies and companies. And some are struggling to get their brand online in the first place. However, as the big brands continue to … →

]]>Today, small businesses are struggling. Struggling to get their voices heard above the noise of multinational competitors. Struggling to catch up and adopt the marketing techniques that have been mastered by digital-savvy agencies and companies. And some are struggling to get their brand online in the first place.

However, as the big brands continue to innovate and deliver greater value, small business owners need to work harder than ever to keep up and ensure their customers are happy. In the last year, brand expectations have increased by more than 23%, but brands have only managed to improve their services by 4%. So, how can you buck the trend and get ahead?

Brand loyalty has to be earned

Before you start panicking that all of your customers are going to disappear overnight, it’s reassuring to know that 77% of consumers would consider themselves as brand loyal. If you’re building strong relationships with your customers, delivering a great level of service and keeping on top of your competition to ensure you’re offering the very best value for money and the most innovative product or service you can, then you don’t need to worry.

Consumers need to remember you

The internet is a loud and scary place. Social networking platforms and news websites are littered with advertising, and so keeping customer retention to a minimum can be a challenge – especially if you don’t have a marketing budget. In order to compete against this noise, you need to create something compelling, or at least contribute to the noise yourself by using content marketing and social media marketing strategies.

A great way to increase loyalty through marketing and branding is writing a blog. Post regular content that’s targeted, well-researched and engaging, and you’ll give your existing customers a reason to keep coming back to your blog – and an opportunity for you to market your new products and services direct to them. Email marketing, guest blogging and retargeting through Google AdWords or Facebook Ads can all be used to similar effect.

It’s a never-ending cycle

Converting followers into customers and keeping your existing customers engaged is an ongoing process, and as new technologies and digital marketing practices come into play, the methods you’ll use will continue to change. The only way you can truly remain competitive and ensure that your customers remain loyal to your brand is to deliver the very best service you can, keep a constant eye on your competition (both corporations and small businesses) and research into the latest customer service and marketing trends. In the digital sphere, you have to be proactive if you want longevity.

What have you been doing to increase customer loyalty and reduce the chances of losing out to your competition? Let us know on social media – we’re on Twitter and Facebook.

]]>8595 of the best websites offering free digital resourceshttps://muffinmarketing.com/free-digital-resources/
Fri, 21 Apr 2017 11:11:57 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=833Marketing your business online can be an expensive affair. On top of paying for social media marketing, search engine optimisation and content, you could also be tasked with graphic design, web design and photography – and those things can take a huge chunk out of your marketing budget. Luckily, there are hundreds of websites offering … →

]]>Marketing your business online can be an expensive affair. On top of paying for social media marketing, search engine optimisation and content, you could also be tasked with graphic design, web design and photography – and those things can take a huge chunk out of your marketing budget. Luckily, there are hundreds of websites offering free digital resources such as royalty-free images, graphics and other useful content that you can use to create a positive first impression when marketing your business. We’ve put together five of the best below.

The internet and copyright

Before we start with this list, a quick word of warning. When creating content, particularly for commercial purposes such as marketing your business, it’s essential that you follow copyright laws. All images, graphics, text and other multimedia content that you use in your promotional efforts, whether that’s on your website or on social media, must belong to you or be copyright free.

Make sure you own or have permission to use any form of content online before you publish it. Familiarise yourself with Creative Commons and apply its policies to everything you create, never assume ownership of content from third party websites and always read the terms and conditions of all resource websites before taking anything. You should also be sure to credit every artist, author and creator of content that you use, edit or refer to – after all, it’s only fair.

Now, let’s get right into it – five of the best websites offering free digital resources for use in your digital marketing efforts.

Unsplash

Free digital resources: Unsplash is a great example

Photography can be one of the most expensive and time-consuming parts of any digital marketing exercise. Not only do you need to prepare your studio, office or shop for a shoot, but you need to hire a freelance photographer that you can rely on, or take the pictures yourself and hope for the best. Unsplash offers truly free images that you can use for whatever purpose you desire. Edit them into a fancy infographic, use them as part of your Twitter and Facebook header images or stick them front and centre on your website’s homepage – it’s up to you.

The best part about Unsplash, other than the fact you have access to thousands of free images to use for your digital marketing, is that the images are of fantastic quality. Many follow a cinematic or Tumblr-esque theme and give you the freedom to edit and tailor them around your brand. One great idea is to download some of your favourites, that are relevant to your industry, and use them on Instagram and Snapchat to encourage potential customers to find out more about your brand.

Flat Icon

A picture tells a thousand words, and having the right images to go alongside your written content can be important – especially when designing key pages of your website such as your services pages. Flat Icon is one of the most useful resources for any web designer, marketer or graphic designer. The site is home to thousands of free-to-use icons and vectors that you can use on your website. From social networking logos that you can download and use to link to your pages, right through to industry-specific sets, like these wedding icons that you can use to demonstrate the products you offer and the services you deliver.

In fact, we use Flat Icon a lot here at Muffin. Many of our blog posts feature icons that allow us to create attractive, professional-looking images for our content and social channels without having to hire a graphic designer for every job. Which leads us to our next resource…

A graphic designer can be expensive. Typically, you can expect to be charged around £100 for a couple of social media graphics; hundreds more if you want them to design you a logo, an infographic or an ebook. Canva takes away the cost of graphic design entirely and allows you to create your own stunning graphics for use on your blogs and social.

Free digital resources: Canva lets you create stunning graphics

Whether you’re looking to create a Twitter post, a letterhead, an infographic or even an attractive banner that you can use on Google AdWords and Facebook Ads, Canva is the ultimate tool for you.

The majority of the features on the website are free-to-use, but extras, such as additional fonts, graphics and images, are available to purchase on a per-item basis, usually for less than a pound or two at a time.

HubSpot

Not all of the free digital resources we’re listing today are downloadable. HubSpot, a company offering inbound marketing and sales software, is home to thousands of free tutorials and helpful resources that you can use to enhance your digital marketing efforts.

The HubSpot marketing blog is updated daily, featuring valuable insights from some of the world’s most successful and influential digital marketers. The best part about this blog is that, whether you’re new to marketing or you’ve got a decade of experience under your belt, you’ll always learn something new and find ways to develop your own marketing efforts. The blog consists of videos, infographics, tutorials and in-depth features, and is backed up by a mailing list that boasts more than 300,000 subscribers.

Behance

There’s a whole host of websites offering free fonts that you can use to design logos and create graphics for your website, with some of the most popular being 1001freefonts and DaFont. While you can certainly pick up a decent-looking font that you can use for free and without credit, these fonts are often generic and have been used by thousands of website owners and marketers over the years. Using them can make your brand look generic and out of touch if you’re not careful.

If you’re looking for a new font for your business, then instead stop by Behance, a graphic design portfolio website where some of the world’s most celebrated digital designers come together to share their latest works. Many designers offer their custom-designed fonts for free – with popular choices including Fibre, Womby and King Basil. Look around and find a font that works for you, but be sure to give the original author credit if you do decide to use any of their fonts.

Wrapping up: free digital resources for your website

With the five free digital resources that we’ve suggested above, you will now probably see that digital marketing doesn’t have to be an expensive affair. By taking advantage of the vast and generous free resources that have been made available to you and following copyright laws by the letter, you can create incredible visual and written content that your customers will love – without having to cut into your all-important marketing budget.

Make sure that you try out all of these tools to see how they can work for you, and do your own research into alternatives if they don’t fit your needs. After all, they won’t cost you a penny but could make you a lot of money when it comes to promoting your brand. Good luck!

]]>833How can I increase engagement levels on my blog?https://muffinmarketing.com/increase-engagement-levels/
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 11:11:38 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=822Blogging is one of the very best ways to build your brand. Not only does it allow you to create a hub where you can share valuable information with your customers and readers, but it positions you as an expert in your industry and allows you to publish fresh content that will be indexed by … →

]]>Blogging is one of the very best ways to build your brand. Not only does it allow you to create a hub where you can share valuable information with your customers and readers, but it positions you as an expert in your industry and allows you to publish fresh content that will be indexed by search engines. One of the most challenging tasks any blogger is likely to face, however, is how to increase engagement levels on their blogs.

Whether you want your readers to sign up to your mailing list, buy one of your products or simply leave a comment, here are some tried-and-tested methods to increase engagement levels on your blog.

Write quality content

It’s the most obvious point on this list, but it’s important to share it nonetheless. If the content you add to your blog doesn’t provide value to your audience, then there’s little point in posting it. Before you publish anything, make sure you read it a couple of times and ask for feedback from colleagues and family members. Ask yourself, if you were in your customer’s shoes, would you want to read this? If the answer is no, then go back to the drawing board and create something that’s worth reading.

If you’re entirely new to blogging or simply don’t know what to post about, then read this article from Blog Tyrant – it’s packed with information on how to write posts that become popular.

Add a call to action

If you’ve already managed to build up an audience on your blog, then you’re one step ahead. Take advantage of their loyalty and ask them to do whatever it is you want them to do. If you want them to sign up to your mailing list, for example, then sign up for a MailChimp account and then try this free WordPress plugin for capturing email addresses.

If your readers don’t know what you want them to do, then they’re not going to do it. You should, therefore, make your website as easy to navigate as possible, and use valuable website real estate, like your home page, sidebars and in between blog posts, to add calls to action. You can learn more about calls to action on the HubSpot Marketing blog.

Host a competition or giveaway

With the availability of free content at an all time high, consumers have more choice when they’re looking for advice online. If you search for how to write an eBook on Google, for example, you’re presented with more than 31 million results – that’s 31 million pieces of content all vying for your attention. Therefore, alongside producing the very best content that you can for your audience, you need an additional hook to get them to engage.

Hosting a competition or a giveaway, for example, free eBook mentoring or book cover design, can encourage people to hand over their details and become invested in your brand and ideas. Capturing email addresses, comments and social media engagements is all part of the sales funnel, so the more people that visit your blog and enter your giveaway, the better. Remember, too, to promote your giveaway on social media to increase engagement levels even further, and consider guest blogging or outreaching to get coverage of your competition.

Include case studies and testimonials

If your readers can’t relate to the content you’re writing, then they won’t engage or interact with it. Case studies are one of the most powerful tools you can use in digital marketing, so ask your customers if they’ll share their knowledge or experience.

If you don’t have any willing customers, or you want to keep them confidential, then consider creating an expert round-up post, where you ask industry experts their thoughts on a topical subject. SmartBlogger has put together a great guide on writing expert round-up posts that get thousands of shares – the key ingredients are choosing the right questions, finding the right experts and promoting your blog post in the right way.

Make it easy for people to share your content

Getting your readers to share your content on social media is great for free promotion – it means your blog will be exposed to thousands of potential customers, and it doesn’t cost you a penny. But unless you make it easy for your visitors to share your content, they won’t be able to do so. Many WordPress themes have sharing features built in, but if yours doesn’t, then install one of the many social sharing plugins available for free.

Ask questions at the end of your blog posts

Although a well-written blog is likely to encourage discussion and debate in the comments section anyway, asking a question or posting a poll can be sure to hook in readers. Plugins such as PollDaddy allow you to add a poll to the end of your blog, so consider adding one and seeing whether or not doing so increases your engagement levels. For contentious or topical subjects, polls can encourage people to check back; plus, the data you gather from a poll could be a great starting point for a future blog post that’s backed by your own research.

Promote your content more

As much as you’d like every reader to sign up to your website and buy your products, the chances of that happening are slim. It’s important not to rely solely on your existing readers and instead promote your content so that it can reach as wide an audience as possible.

One of the best ways of promoting new content is to post about it on social media, but other options include syndicating content, using article submission websites, taking part in outreach to ask for backlinks and mentions from influencers in your industry, and using your mailing list to alert your subscribers that a new post has gone live.Kiss Metrics has put together some advanced methods for promoting your new content – check them out if you’re looking for more ideas and want to take your content marketing to the next level.

Respond to your readers

If someone has taken the time to comment on your blog post or sign up to your mailing list, then the least you can do is say thank you. Respond to their comments, follow them back on social media or answer their questions. It doesn’t take long to add a personal touch, and creating a good first impression means that your visitors are more likely to come back again.

After all, these visitors, commenters and subscribers could be your future customers, so it pays to put in the ground work when they’re still getting to grips with who you are and what you do. Offer a free download, run a question and answer session or give one-on-one advice if you have the time – you’ll be thankful that you did when they place a big order with you!

Increase engagement levels on your blog

Increasing engagement on your blog isn’t always easy. Depending on the nature of your industry and the competitiveness of your niche, you’ll have to work hard to get your readers to speak up. Just remember that valuable content, good calls to action and consistency will help you stand out and encourage your repeat visitors to get in touch.

What are you doing to get readers to engage with your brand? Let us know your ideas on social media, or get in touch if you have any questions about building your business online.blog

]]>Search engine optimisation (SEO) can be complicated. So complicated, in fact, that analysts predicted that the industry was worth an eye-watering $65 billion a year. And, as the internet becomes ever competitive, companies are spending more than ever on improving their organic search engine results page rankings. Although mastering the art of SEO takes time, patience and skill, there are some simple fixes you can make to improve your website’s SEO that don’t require a great deal of technical skill.

What is SEO?

Before we delve into the quick fixes you can make to improve your website’s SEO, let’s take a quick look into what SEO actually involves. As Google writes, SEO is “the process of maximising the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine”.

Simply put, the more work you do behind the scenes to make your website more visible and accessible to search engines, the higher your website will rank for specific terms relevant to your industry, and the more organic traffic you’ll enjoy as a result. Both multinational corporations and the local corner shop can benefit from SEO, as Google’s algorithms are centred around providing value to the end user. Therefore, the better quality content you create for your readers and potential customers, the higher you’ll rank on search engines.

How to improve your website’s SEO

If you want to improve your website’s SEO, you may decide to work with a digital marketing agency or SEO expert to do the job for you. It is possible, however, to make some quick fixes that will give you a quick boost to your website’s SEO. Read on to find out more.

Install an SEO plugin on WordPress

One of the simplest ways to improve your website’s presence on search engines is to install a WordPress plugin called Yoast SEO. As the world’s most popular SEO plugin, Yoast allows you to add a keyword and meta description for each of your web pages, increasing your chances of climbing to the top of search results for your specific term.

If you own a top hat company in Manchester, for example, and have a page on your website about finding the best top hat in Manchester, then you could choose a keyword such as Manchester top hats, and include that keyword in your content and meta description.

It sounds technical, but getting your head around the basics of search engine optimisation, keywords and meta descriptions, will allow you to make an impact without spending any money. If all of this technical jargon has gone over your head, then watch this in-depth tutorial from Darrel Wilson, who’s ‘dummified’ Yoast SEO for absolute beginners.

There are a number of reasons why your website could load slowly – from server performance and location to the build of your website and the software you’re using. If you want to improve your website’s SEO, then you should aim to make your website run as quickly as you can – and the best way you can do that is to cache your website.

Download a plugin such as W3 Total Cache for WordPress, and you should see a noticeable difference to your website. Such cache plugins mush down the size of your content, like HTML files, CSS files and images, meaning that there’s less to be delivered to your end users. Another option to consider is a content delivery network such as CloudFlare, which delivers content across multiple servers depending on the location of the user.

Update your content to include relevant keywords

Take the time to find the right keywords for your business. Doing so can be challenging, but put yourself into the head of a potential customer and think about what they’re likely to type into Google. Word Stream has put together a great post on finding keywords in your industry or niche, and you can also take advantage of tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush if you want to find the data behind your keywords (such as the number of times your keyword is typed into Google and how much competition the keyword has).

As soon as you have found keywords for your website (stick to one or two if you want to increase your likelihood of ranking well), update pages, meta descriptions and blog posts to ensure your chosen keywords are included. If other websites are linking back to you or you write blog posts on third-party websites, change your links to include the new keywords.

Quick fixes: improve your website’s SEO

Implement a content marketing strategy

We’ve talked about the importance of content before, but there’s no harm in mentioning it again in this post. It’s essential that you write quality, in-depth content on your website that offers value to your users. Not only will your customers benefit from your expertise, but search engines like Google will use this fresh content to help you rank for new terms.

If you run a dog grooming business and write a blog post about how to trim your dog’s nails, for example, then users who search for trimming their dog’s nails will come to your website. From there, it’s up to you to convert them from a visitor to a customer, which you can do by adding a mailing list, promoting a special offer or directing them to other parts of your site.

Buy an SSL certificate

Security is an important part of any website – especially if your customers are going to be inputting personal data like their address, phone number and bank details. And, with 51% of consumers worried about their cyber security and concerned over identity theft, it’s important that you do your bit to create a website that’s safe and secure at all times.

SSL certificates can be difficult to get your head around, but some web hosts have integrated Let’s Encrypt, a free SSL service, into their control panels to allow you to add one to your website with a single click. If your web host doesn’t offer this service, just send them an email and tell them that you’d like an SSL certificate on your website. You may need to pay for this, but certificates are relatively inexpensive and can be picked up for less than £20 per year.

Now it’s your turn to improve your website’s SEO

These quick search engine optimisation tricks are bound to help you improve your website’s SEO. Make sure that you’re always staying up-to-date with the latest in SEO by following this blog, and let us know if you have any other simple SEO tips on social media. Good luck!

]]>826The best way to market your small business? Just do ithttps://muffinmarketing.com/just-do-it/
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 11:11:36 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=818The internet is littered with bloggers and experts, all claiming to have cracked the small business digital marketing code. In fact, we’ve even published our own digital marketing cheat sheet that claims to offer everything you need to know about how to market your small business. We’ve done our best at giving you all of … →

]]>The internet is littered with bloggers and experts, all claiming to have cracked the small business digital marketing code. In fact, we’ve even published our own digital marketing cheat sheet that claims to offer everything you need to know about how to market your small business. We’ve done our best at giving you all of the information you’ll need, but it’s by no means comprehensive or complete. We’ll be tweaking to and adding to our cheat sheet for years to come!

The chances are that you’ve probably already bookmarked some of these blogs, like our own, and you may even have taken out a subscription to software that promises to “shake up” your marketing, save you time and make you more money.

However, instead of spending months reading case studies, trailing new products and software and working with different digital marketing agencies, we have another idea: just do it.

We live in a world that’s overloaded with information. There are blogs, YouTube videos and three-month £99 e-courses for practically any and every digital marketing dilemma out there. Rather than getting lost in all of the noise and spending far too much time signing up to mailing lists and commenting on blogs, we recommend biting the bullet and experimenting.

If you’re looking to market your small business this year and don’t want to fall into the trap of wasting time and spending money that you don’t have, you need to read this.

You’re not going to make that many mistakes

In this fast-paced, everyone’s-an-expert world, we’re often pressured into executing the most efficient strategy for everything we do. But it’s the mistakes we make that help us grow as individuals. Even if you’re not planning on becoming a digital marketer yourself and only want to grow your brand, getting on with it and experimenting is the best way to learn.

Experimentation leads to new ideas

Digital marketing is ever-changing, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all model to success. Instead of following a tried and tested formula that’s been used by a digital marketing company, you should experiment and see what works for your business. Learning by doing helps you become a better marketer, and experimentation can lead to new ideas.

You’re probably wasting time

Type in small business marketing on Google, and you’ll be greeted with more than 100 million resources to look through. While some will undoubtedly provide you with value, most of them are rehashed concepts we’re all already well aware of. Stop wasting time reading countless blogs and start doing stuff. You probably shouldn’t finish this blog, either.

Digital marketing blogs are often misleading and commercialised

While we’re not saying that digital marketing blogs don’t provide value, many are created by software-as-a-service companies and overemphasise the importance of their software – leading inexperienced digital marketers to splash out on unless technology they don’t need and won’t use. After all, blogs are commercials. Nobody’s spending time writing articles and offering their advice if they’re getting nothing in return.

How did you learn how to market your business?

Did you have a go-to eBook that you used as a digital marketing bible, or did you just get stuck in and learn things on your own? Let us know in the comments section below.

]]>818The ultimate digital marketing cheat sheethttps://muffinmarketing.com/digital-marketing-cheat-sheet/
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 11:11:37 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=703At Muffin Marketing, we know that entering the digital sphere and promoting your brand can be daunting; especially when you don’t have any prior experience. With our digital marketing cheat sheet, we’ve made it easy for you to get online, connect with potential customers and take your business to the next level. The digital marketing cheat … →

]]>At Muffin Marketing, we know that entering the digital sphere and promoting your brand can be daunting; especially when you don’t have any prior experience. With our digital marketing cheat sheet, we’ve made it easy for you to get online, connect with potential customers and take your business to the next level.

The digital marketing cheat sheet

We know that running a business can be tough. Regardless of the industry you are working in, there’s a lot you need to deal with on a day-to-day basis, whether that’s speaking with clients, managing finances or ordering new stock. And, that’s without fitting in all of your everyday tasks like spending time with family, cooking, cleaning, shopping and relaxing.

However, with digital marketing and the internet becoming more and more important to small and medium-sized business owners, there’s no excuse not to start work on your online presence. Below, we’ve put together everything you need to know about getting your business online – and we’ve pooled together lots of useful resources to use on your journey.

How can you build an online presence quickly?

From purchasing a domain name to setting up a PPC campaign, we’ve bundled together everything there is to know. This beginner’s guide is long – more than 3,500 words – so we’ve split it up into thirteen (unlucky for some) different sections. Click on the navigation sections below, and bookmark this cheat sheet and come back to it when you need it.

Register a domain name

Before you do anything else, you must register a domain name for your business. A domain name is the ‘address’ your visitors will type into their browsers if they want to visit your website – for example, mybusiness.com or google.com – and so the sooner you can bag a domain name for your brand, the quicker you’ll be able to start your online journey.

You’ll need a domain name if you want a website where visitors and potential customers can find out more about your business and what you do.

Visit a domain name registrar such as Namecheap or GoDaddy and purchase a domain name for your business. Avoid dashes (-) and numbers if possible, and try to get the .com or .co.uk version of your desired domain, as these are the most commonly used extensions.

Cost: Less than £10 per domain name per year

Difficulty: Easy

Necessity: Essential

Extra tips: If your desired name isn’t available, add your industry’s keyword (such as plumbing, marketing or gardening) or your location (like London, Manchester, Wales) to the end of your brand name. Aim for a .com domain name, as these are the most memorable. Alternatively, try a different domain name extension, such as .co.uk, .biz or .org.

Buy web hosting

Web hosting is the physical space, or the computer, where your website will be hosted. These computers, which are known as servers, will ensure your website’s content remains online and accessible 24/7, so it’s important that you find a UK-based web host that is reliable and affordable. Look online for the best web host for your budget, or consider a company such as GoDaddy or Hostgator. As soon as you have purchased your web hosting package, you’ll be able to link it to your domain name and start building your website – or find a web design company who’ll do this for you.

Cost: Less than £10 per month

Difficulty: Easy

Necessity: Essential

Extra tips: Find a web host that offers features such as unlimited email addresses, databases and one-click installations of software like WordPress. Take advantage of your new web host’s knowledge base – they’ll probably be packed with useful info that’s easy to follow.

Design and launch a website

As soon as you’ve set up your domain name and web hosting, the next step is to design and launch your website. For small business owners, this process can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be expensive or technical if you don’t want it to be. Install WordPress on your website, or ask your web host to do it for you, and play around with the free WordPress themes that can be used to give you a head start. As long as you have a spare couple of hours and aren’t afraid of watching a YouTube tutorial or two, you should be able to create your own professional-looking website for free.

If you’re looking for a complete package, or you don’t have the time or technical skill to design your own website, then you may want to work with a web design company to do the hard work for you. The cost of using such companies varies, but expect to spend at least £500 – £1,000 if you want a professionally-designed website. This option is not feasible for many small business owners, and so the first option is usually more attractive.

Cost: Free, up to £1,000+

Difficulty: Challenging if you have no design knowledge, but not impossible

Necessity: Essential

Extra tips: WordPress is the most popular website builder and it’s very easy to customise it to your exacting requirements. Use websites like WordPress Beginner to find answers to your questions if you’re building your website on your own. If you’re considering hiring a web design company, get multiple quotes, consider freelancers and ask friends and family members whether they’ll be able to design your website for you.

Start a blog

Once you have your website up and running and you’re pleased with the way it looks and reads, then consider launching a blog. By posting regular content on your website, whether that’s a help guide related to your industry or an update on your company in general, you’ll give people a reason to come back to your website and encourage search engines such as Google to list your website in their search engine results pages’ rankings. This is known as content marketing and is used by business big and small around the world. If you used WordPress to create your website, the functionality of adding new blog posts will be automatically built into your software – it just takes a few clicks to send a post live.

Cost: Free

Difficulty: Easy

Necessity: Highly recommended

Extra tips: Allow comments if you want your readers to be able to engage with your content.

Write content regularly

There’s no point in adding a blog to your website if you don’t update it regularly, so engage in a content marketing strategy and stick to it. For small business owners, we recommend blogging once a week, but you can write multiple posts at once and schedule them over the month to save you time and ensure you’re keeping your audience up to date. If you’re just too busy to write your own content or you don’t have a way with words, then ask your staff members whether they’d be interested in blogging for you, or outsource your blogging content to a third party company. It may be more expensive than writing for your own blog, but it can save you time and allow you to post relevant, engaging content on a weekly basis.

Cost: Free to £100 per month

Difficulty: Intermediate

Necessity: Highly recommended

Extra tips: Download the blogging calendar from Small Paper Things to stay organised and ensure you never miss a deadline. Stick to a particular day and commit to publishing at the same time every week. Schedule posts in advance to save time.

Launch a mailing list to capture customers’ details

Professional bloggers like Ramsay from Blog Tyrant swear by building a mailing list to grow your brand online. Whether you’ve got 10 customers or ten thousand, adding a mailing list to your website is one of the best ways to build leads and boost your brand. Use a WordPress plugin to capture email addresses, link it to email marketing platforms such as MailChimp or Aweber and send out monthly emails to update customers on your latest blog posts, special offers and new product launches. It’s a surprisingly effective way to boost engagement and loyalty and increase your chances of securing new customers. If you can’t seem to get visitors to sign up to your mailing list, give your visitors a ‘carrot’ as a reward for signing up.

Execute a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy

Launching your website and setting up a mailing list is only the beginning of your online journey – you now need to compete against other companies that are ranking above you on search engines. When a potential customer types in your product or service on Google, are they getting directed to your website, or are your competitors showing up first? The chances are that, if your website is new, your competitors will be winning the race, so you’ll need to use search engine optimisation – also known as SEO – to make your website stand out. There are some basic SEO techniques you can carry out without any experience, like installing Yoast SEO on your WordPress website and blogging regularly using keywords related to your industry, but the majority of search engine optimisation techniques will require experience. Consider working with an SEO agency to help you rank for keywords in your industry, to read these ten basic SEO tips and learn how to do it yourself.

Cost: Can be free, can be expensive (£300+ per month)

Difficulty: Experienced

Necessity: Recommended

Extra tips: Make sure each of your web pages has relevant keywords which Google and other search engines will use to rank your website. Blog regularly. Add lots of links to pages.

Dabble in pay-per-click advertising

If you want to give your business a boost, consider dabbling in pay-per-click advertising. You can advertise on search engines such as Google, and pay a fee every time somebody clicks through to your website. It can be difficult to find the right balance when it comes to PPC advertising – you may, for example, spend £2 for every click you receive, but only sell a £10 product every ten times somebody clicks through. It’s important to master the basics of PPC and then experiment to optimise your pay-per-click campaigns based on their performance. You can also advertise on websites such as Facebook and Twitter, or check out AdWords if you want your banner adverts to appear on millions of websites around the world.

Sign up for relevant social media channels

It’s easy to think that there’s no need for your brand to be active on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, but you’d be wrong. Social media marketing is important for any and every business, so sign up on the most popular – and most relevant – platforms to put your brand in the eyes of potential customers. If your brand is particularly visual – for example, if you sell delicious cakes or you work in photography – then you may want to look at Instagram. If you deal in B2B sales, then LinkedIn is where you should be. Generally speaking, all businesses should start with at least a Facebook and Twitter presence. It’s easy to sign up for a Twitter account for your business – just follow the usual process. For Facebook, you need to make a Page, rather than account, and you can do so by reading this.

Extra tips: When it comes to choosing usernames, try and secure just your brand name. Avoid underscores and numbers if possible. Double and triple check spelling before confirming your account name, as you may not be able to change it on some networks.

Design your social media channels

As soon as you’ve signed up to the right social networking platforms, you need to design your profile and make it stand out. In the aim of simplicity, we’ll split this into two tasks.

Text

You’ll need to fill in every possible field on your social networking channels if you want to stand out. Make sure you write an engaging biography on Twitter, be sure to add an address and phone number on your Facebook Page and spend time crafting the right description on your LinkedIn business profile. Double and triple check for spelling and grammar errors, and make sure you remain professional throughout – it’s this text that potential customers will see first when they visit your social channels, so it’s essential that it’s an accurate and engaging representation of your brand. If you’re not good with words or you’re not sure how you can describe your business in the best way, you should hire a copywriter or ask a friend for help.

Graphics

The biggest part of any social networking profile page is the graphics. As well as a profile picture (sometimes known as an avatar), you’ll also need a banner for your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn channels. Use a high-quality version of your business logo for your avatar (and if you don’t have one, ask a graphic designer to make one for you, or use a service like Fiverr to get a logo designed for less than £5). For your banner, you’ll also require the assistance of a graphic designer, or you could use some high-quality photography that’s relevant to your brand or industry and add your logo to it. You can find a range of professional, royalty free images on websites like Pexels and Negative Space, and then add your logo to it.

The design of your social media profiles will have a big role in how potential customers will view your brand. The more professional, engaging and attractive you can make your brand and products, the more likely you are to convert followers into customers. Once you’re happy with your new social media channel designs, make sure you ask friends, family members and customers to follow, like and share your profiles. By creating an early buzz around your channels, you’ll find it easier to grow your follower base.

Cost: Free – £100

Difficulty: Some experience required

Necessity: Essential

Extra tips: Don’t use blurry images. Make sure all of your social media profiles use high-quality, professional imagery throughout. Spend time crafting the right biography, and consider asking staff members and customers their opinions if you can’t decide how to word something.

Post content on social media regularly

After you’ve set up your social networking channels, you now need to post on them regularly. This is why we recommend only signing up for channels on networks that will have a definite impact on your business. As a rule, you should be posting content on Twitter and Facebook every day, but if this is too much hard work and effort, then once or twice a week should suffice while you build an audience. Take advantage of free tools such as TweetDeck and Hootsuite, which can be used to schedule posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google Plus. This is particularly useful if you want to quickly write posts for the week ahead – you can schedule them all in minutes, and keep your customers engaged throughout the week while you’re getting on with more important business tasks.

When it comes to deciding what to post on social media, you have many options. You may want to post relevant news and articles that are related to your customers and industries, or you could post photographs and news about your products and services. To maximise your chances of social media success, mix promotional and informative posts together, and try not to directly promote your brand or service more than once a day, as it may be off-putting to your followers. Oz Content has put together fifty awesome social media content ideas; from behind the scenes photos and testimonials to weekly round-ups, promotional videos and inspirational quotes. It’s up to you to find the right promotional mix for your brand.

Although auto-scheduling and tools like Meet Edgar that recycle and reuse your social media posts, one thing to bear in mind is that you should always be available to answer customers’ questions on social media – but more on that later.

Cost: Free, although some social media management tools are paid for

Difficulty: Easy

Necessity: Not essential, but important for growing your social presence

Extra tips: If you’re just too busy to focus on social media or you don’t have the skills and desire to do so, then consider outsourcing your social media management to an agency.

Engage with your customers on social media

If you’ve made it this far, then you’ve done a good job. You’ve got a great looking website that provides detailed information on everything your company offers, you’ve optimised your website for search engines, you’re executing a kick-ass content marketing strategy and you’ve just made your social media channels look and feel like part of your brand. The next step is to engage with your customers on social media – and that goes far beyond posting news and updates about your industry.

In figures provided by ZenDesk, 42 percent of customers who complained to a company on social media expected a response within an hour. It sounds daunting, but in an ever-digital world where more of us are spending more time on social media than ever before, it’s essential that you regularly monitor your brand on social media and address complaints as soon as you possibly can. Doing so can not only rectify issues and get customers back on your side, but it can also be a valuable tool for growing your brand and improving your overall customer service reputation.

Wrapping up

As much as it’s our aim to provide you with everything you need to know to become a better marketer, we’ve only scratched the surface with this digital marketing cheat sheet. The most important thing you can do when promoting your business online is to consistently and continually research into the latest digital marketing trends. Add blogs to your favourites menu, sign up for email campaigns to get the latest news, experiment within your niche and don’t be afraid of asking for help from a marketing agency. Unless you adapt and develop to the ever-changing online sphere, you’ll soon find that you’re falling behind your competition.

If you’re looking for somewhere to start, then sign up to the Muffin Marketing mailing list at the bottom of this page. Check out our list of UK Twitter Hours in 2017, our Twitter post ideas if you’re struggling to decide what to tweet about and our five ways to boost organic Facebook likes without using advertising. The Muffin Marketing blog is updated twice a week with new tips and features that you can use to your advantage, but we’re not the only resource you should use. Websites such as Moz, Inbound.org, Elegant Themes and WPMUDEV provide masses of resources that you can use to expand your knowledge and improve your digital presence – and, the best part of it all? They’re free to use.

In this digital marketing cheat sheet, we’ve put together the basics of promoting your brand online. Be sure to bookmark it to your favourites bar, check back to it regularly, and post any questions you may have in the comments section below. We’re always on hand to lend a hand to business owners wanting to improve their knowledge and make their buisnesses stand out online. Good luck!

]]>7035 unique backlinks ideas for small businesseshttps://muffinmarketing.com/backlinks-ideas/
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 11:11:59 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=801There are hundreds of ways to boost your chances of ranking on the first page of Google for your search term, and one of them is to build backlinks. Whether you’re a complete beginner or you already know a few things about search engine optimisation (SEO), read on to see for our five backlinks ideas … →

]]>There are hundreds of ways to boost your chances of ranking on the first page of Google for your search term, and one of them is to build backlinks. Whether you’re a complete beginner or you already know a few things about search engine optimisation (SEO), read on to see for our five backlinks ideas for small businesses.

What is a backlink?

Backlinks, which are also known as inbound links, are links from your website to another website on the internet. This is a backlink to a Yell.com article on the same topic we’re discussing today, and you may find it useful to read that page if you want to learn more about what backlinks are. Simply put, every link on your website and on other’s websites pass authority (also known as link juice) between websites, telling search engines like Google that your website is of high quality and is worthy of being linked to as a resource.

Why backlinks are useful

The most obvious benefit of a backlink is that Google and other search engines will see that your website has been linked to by third-party websites, increasing your website’s authority and increasing your chances of ranking highly on results pages. As Moz reports, it’s very difficult for your website to rank for competitive search terms (i.e. keywords that relate to your products, services or industry) without backlinks. Therefore, businesses are placing more emphasis than ever on building links back to their websites to help them rank.

Backlinks are not just good for search engines, however. A link from a high-authority website that’s relevant to your industry and audience can generate traffic and bring more potential customers to your website. It’s essential, therefore, that you build backlinks.

1. Ask local businesses to add you to their resources page

If you’re friendly with other local businesses (whether they’re your suppliers, distributors or neighbours), then ask them to add a link back to your website on their resources pages. If, for example, you stock a particular local ice cream brand in your store, then you could ask the manufacturer to add a link back to your website on their distribution page. This link will provide value to your audience, as it will show them where they can buy the ice cream, and it will add value to your site, as it will give you a ranking boost and provide you with traffic.

If you’re unsure as to how to reach out to a local business for a backlink, try this template.

Hi [website owner],

I’ve noticed that you have a resources page that lists local businesses and suppliers in the area. I’ve just launched my website at [link to website], and was wondering whether you’d be interested in checking it out and potentially linking to it on your page?

An email like this is short, sweet and should do the job. If the website owner doesn’t get back to you, then consider reaching out in a month or two’s time with a gentle reminder. Webmasters, especially those running businesses at the same time, are just as busy as you.

There’s no need to give a reciprocal backlink if you don’t think their website will be relevant to your audience, but doing so can act as a carrot and encourage them to do the same.

2. Get listed on local business directories

Before Google became a part of our everyday lives, some webmasters attempted to categorise and sort the internet by creating directories. Nowadays, these ‘link building’ directories as no longer as prominent as they once were, but they can still be valuable if you use them correctly. Sign up to as many relevant local business directories as you can, and take the time to fill in all of the necessary fields to give you the best chances of success. Don’t forget to add a link back to your website – there’s little point in doing so without it!

3. Run a competition to encourage bloggers to link to your website

Running a competition is a great way to get started on social media, but giveaways can also be used on your website to boost backlinks. Package together your products, services or buy a desirable item such as a MacBook or iPad, and offer it away in a competition. If you want to increase your chances of getting a backlink, then you could centre your competition around blog posts – ask entrants to blog about your products and link back to your website. Free promotion and a backlink too? That’s worth more than a MacBook any day!

4. Blog on other people’s websites

Despite the great backlinks ideas that we’ve discussed above, it can still be difficult to get website owners to commit to giving you a free link with nothing in return. One popular way of increasing your website’s backlinks is to guest blog – that is, write content for another website. This marketing technique can be expensive and time-consuming, especially if you’re doing it alongside running a business, but it’s one of the best ways of gaining a relevant backlink from a high-authority website that will pass ‘link juice’ to your website.

Reach out to relevant bloggers, news agencies and industry resource websites where you’d like a backlink, and ask them whether or not they’re accepting guest posts. If they do, write a high-quality article that can go on their blog, and weave in a natural link or two back to your website. If you’re feeling particularly inventive, make your backlinks match your chosen keywords – this will work wonders for boosting your results page rankings.

Use this email template to ask a blogger whether or not they’re accepting guest blogs – and personalise emails if you want to increase your chances of getting a placement.

Hello [website owner],

I’m an avid reader of your blog, and really enjoyed your recent article/resource on [topic here]. I actually shared it on social media and mentioned it in my latest blog post!

I was just wondering whether or not you’re currently accepting guest blogs? I’ve got an idea for a topic that I think would really suit your audience, and because I work in [industry], I thought it could be useful for me to share my knowledge. Let me know your thoughts!

Keep up the good work.

Another short and sweet email template that can often be enough to persuade a website owner to give you a place on their website. If they respond and ask for a payment, then think carefully – is it worth paying for a link on this website, or can I find a similar opportunity elsewhere for free? Remember that you already have to take the time to research and write content for their website – a payment on top of this could be too much.

You may even decide to allow other people to guest post on your website. While you won’t get a backlink for doing so, you’ll get the free content that you can use to rank on search engines, and it saves you an hour or two writing your weekly blog. There are definite benefits to accepting a guest post, but you should exercise caution before doing so. Google can penalise websites that publish low-quality content or that link to spammy websites, so make sure you thoroughly check their content before posting it on your website.

5. Put a link back to your website on your client’s websites

This final backlinks idea won’t be appropriate for every business, but it certainly works for some. If you offer a service, such as web design, hosting or consulting, then consider putting a link back to your website on your client’s websites. ‘Web hosting by [company name]’ is a great way of securing a free, fast backlink – and, if you have access to your client’s websites indefinitely, you can change the text and links depending on what you want to rank for.

How many backlinks do you need to rank for specific keywords?

The number of backlinks that you need to rank well for a specific term is highly dependent on the competitiveness of your term (i.e. “groceries” is a lot more competitive than “fruit and vegetable deliveries in Primrose Hill”). As Stream SEO reports, the quality of a backlink is now much more important than the quantity. So, you could have a thousand low-quality backlinks from websites that aren’t relevant to your industry and rank lower than a website with fifty high-quality backlinks that relate to their keyword and industry. The art of finding high-quality, relevant backlinks can be challenging, but by doing so, you’ll be able to rank.

Where can I see my current backlinks?

If you really want to take link building seriously, then there are several tools you can use to monitor links pointing to your website. Tools such as Ahrefs can be used to track backlinks, see which websites are linking to your competitors and even track your rankings. The tool offers a free trial if you want to experiment, but the full package starts at $99 per month.

More backlinks ideas

Today, we’ve talked about five unique ways to build links for your small business, but we’ve only scratched the surface. You could create infographics, reach out to websites that link to your competitors, build more internal links by linking to pages on your websites from blog posts, write testimonials on other websites, use Help a Reporter Out to share your knowledge and get a link when you’re used as an expert, and even donate to charities that offer a link to their donor’s websites.

How do you build links on your small business website? What challenges have you faced when trying to get backlinks? Let us know in the comments below.

]]>801Twitter post ideas: 10 things to tweet abouthttps://muffinmarketing.com/twitter-post-ideas/
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 11:11:45 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=781If you’ve followed any digital marketing blog, you’ll already understand the importance of social media. Although it’s not essential to do so, we recommend tweeting at least once a day, and also engaging with your followers whenever they reach out to you. But coming up with unique social media posts can be challenging. If you’re … →

But coming up with unique social media posts can be challenging. If you’re struggling for ideas of what to tweet, follow these ten Twitter post ideas.

What you’re having for breakfast

“Why would I want to sign up to Instagram? I don’t care what people are having for their breakfast”. It’s a phrase you’ve probably heard more than once in your life, and while it’s true that trivial social media posts aren’t to everyone’s taste, that doesn’t mean you should shy away from giving your social media accounts some personality. There are definitely differences between personal and business social media accounts, but there’s nothing stopping you from taking a picture of your delicious morning oats in the office canteen.

Not only do pictures of food and pets give your followers something pretty to look at, but they show that there are real people behind your social accounts. Not every post has to be promotional or professional – especially when it comes to small businesses.

Your opinions on industry news

If you run a hair salon and Kate Middleton’s locks make the news, then you should use it as an opportunity to share your industry knowledge and get in on the action. Make sure you’ve subscribed to news alerts for key phrases in your industry, and always be on the lookout for something topical that you can use to your advantage. In many cases, the news doesn’t have to relate to your industry in order for you to mention it and share your thoughts, but consider your audience and decide whether or not something is appropriate before posting.

Local events and activities

If you’re sponsoring a local fun run or a charity is asking for donations in your physical store, then get involved in the action and post about it on your social networking channels. You could even go so far as to launch a crowdfunding campaign for a cause you care about – but remember that the energy you put into this could be better used growing your brand.

Whenever a charity, fundraising group or local business mentions you on social media, be sure to retweet them. This not only spreads the word about your good deed, but it also builds relationships with local companies and keeps your business in the public eye.

Polls and interactive content

Work in a bakery and can’t decide what cake to bake next? Ask your followers for their opinions. Twitter polls and Facebook Live makes it easier than ever to interact with your followers, and many businesses purposefully tweet questions and challenges to keep their audiences engaged. If a follower does suggest a cake, for example, take the time to respond to them – building rapport is one of the best ways of turning followers into customers.

Twitter post ideas: ten things you can tweet about

Competitions and challenges

Running a competition on Twitter is one of the best ways of boosting your brand on social media. Not only can you ask your followers for a retweet and a follow in exchange for an entry into your competition or giveaway, but you can also ask them to visit your website and sign up to your mailing list in the process. It’s a win-win, but you need to ensure that you are giving away something of value if you want to attract people’s attentions.

Details of an upcoming promotion

If you’re planning a promotion, sale or discount code for your customers, then tweet about it in advance to build up hype. Not only will this perk the interest of your customers ahead of your promotion, but it will also show that you’re working hard behind the scenes.

Updates on new product developments

If you’re still working on a new product or service that customers have been requesting for a long time, then take the time out of your day to update them on any developments. Teasing and posting incremental updates is one of the best ways to engage your audience – consider posting a weekly update with a particular hashtag, and complement big updates and developments with a new blog post or YouTube video.

Pictures of team building days and staff training

Keeping your followers up-to-date on your team is a great way of improving the relationship between customers and staff members. If you’re on an away day with your staff or you have a trainer at your office, take a picture and post about it on social media. Showing you’re investing in your team and improving your products/services speaks volumes.

What you’re watching on TV

If you’re really running low on ideas, then consider posting about your favourite TV show or movie. If you’re shocked by the new Game of Thrones teaser, for example, you could share it with your followers and ask for their thoughts. Off-the-cuff posts can spark the interest of potential customers and encourage discussion and debate – and it can be fun, too!

A Twitter hour hashtag

Many professionals gather together online once a week and communicate through a Twitter Hour. If you’ve never heard of a Twitter hour, the process is simple: post relevant content related to a particular industry or subject manner and include a specific hashtag in your tweets. Clear space in your diary and commit to a Twitter Hour – it can be a great way to make new industry contacts, shout about your products and services and score some new Twitter followers in the process. You can’t say fairer than that!

Summary

While you may want to use Twitter to promote your products and services at all times, mixing up your social media messages is the best way to keep your followers happy. These ten tweet ideas should help you if you’re struggling, but we want to hear from you. What do you like to tweet about, and what results have you seen from the content you post? Let us know in the comments below.

]]>781Full list of UK Twitter Hours in 2017https://muffinmarketing.com/uk-twitter-hours/
Mon, 20 Mar 2017 11:11:01 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=774One of the best ways for small business owners to boost their brands and network with like-minded individuals is to use Twitter Hours. We’ve put together an exhaustive and up-to-the-minute list of UK Twitter Hours to try out as part of your social media marketing. What is a Twitter Hour? A Twitter Hour is a … →

]]>One of the best ways for small business owners to boost their brands and network with like-minded individuals is to use Twitter Hours. We’ve put together an exhaustive and up-to-the-minute list of UK Twitter Hours to try out as part of your social media marketing.

What is a Twitter Hour?

A Twitter Hour is a temporary hyper-community created through the use of a Twitter hashtag. There are thousands of Twitter Hours around the world and are used by small business owners and digital marketers who want to network and promote their brands.

How do I participate in a Twitter Hour?

Getting involved in a Twitter Hour couldn’t be simpler. Just tweet your message at your chosen Hour’s specific time with the relevant hashtag. To make the Hour more engaging, be sure to follow the hashtag and interact with other people’s tweets – retweets, likes and replies are all welcomed and help to keep the spirit of the Twitter Hour alive.

As many Twitter Hours begin after hours, consider scheduling some of your promotional tweets in advance using software like Hootsuite and Buffer. That way, you’ll be able to focus on engaging with your followers during the Hour without having to remember to post about your products and services.

Location-based UK Twitter Hours on Mondays

2-3pm #SouthWestHour

7-8pm #CumbriaHour

8-9pm #BrandYorkshire

8-9pm #BrighouseHour

8-9pm #CheshireHour

8-9pm #ConnectingEssex

8-9pm #HarrogateHour

8-9pm #LincsHour

8-9pm #NorthEastHour

8-9pm #PrestonHour

8-9pm #StockportHour

8-9pm #VintageWedHour

8-9pm #WorcesterHour

8-9pm #YorkHour

Location-based UK Twitter Hours on Tuesdays

12- 1pm #YorkshireJobsHour

3-4pm #HartlepoolHour

4-5pm #BillericayHour

4-5pm #ColchesterHour

4-5pm #MaldonHour

7-8pm #BlkCountryHour

7-8pm #WhitbyHour

8-9pm #BeverleyHour

8-9pm #CalderdaleHour

8-9pm #ChesterHour

8-9pm #DiscoverRipon

8-9pm #DoncasterHour

8-9pm #FleetHour

8-9pm #HampshireHour

8-9pm #KetteringHour

8-9pm #MaidstoneHour

8-9pm #MerseyBiz

8-9pm #NidderdaleHour

8-9pm #WestMidsHour

8-9pm #WetherbyHour

9-10pm #SkiptonHour

Location-based UK Twitter Hours on Wednesdays

2-3pm #CoDurhamHour

2-3pm #EssexHour

2-3pm #NewcastleHour

2-3pm #TeesTime

7-8pm #HambletonHour

7-8pm #LincolnHour

7-8pm #RyedaleHour

8-9pm #BramhamHour

8-9pm #CambsHour

8-9pm #CardiffHour

8-9pm #CotswoldsHour

8-9pm #DevonHour

8-9pm #EastMidlandsHour

8-9pm #HorshamHour

8-9pm #MidlandsHour

8-9pm #NorthWestHour

8-9pm #OxHour

8-9pm #SalisburyHour

8-9pm #ShropshireHour

8-9pm #SlaithwaiteHour

8-9pm #StaffordshireHour

8-9pm #StaffordshireHour

8-9pm #WolverhamptonHour

9-11pm #IrishBizParty

Location-based UK Twitter Hours on Thursdays

7-8pm #LoveLichfield

7-8pm #LoveSwad

7-8pm #LoveUttox

7-8pm #OtleyHour

8-9pm #BarnsleyHour

8-9pm #BlackpoolHour

8-9pm #BradfordHour

8-9pm #ChesterfieldHour

8-9pm #DerbyshireHour

8-9pm #EastAngliaHour

8-9pm #HalifaxHour

8-9pm #HuddersfieldHour

8-9pm #HullHour

8-9pm #LancashireHour

8-9pm #LeedsHour

8-9pm #LiverpoolHour

8-9pm #LondonHour

8-9pm #ManchesterHour

8-9pm #NorthantsHour

8-9pm #SheffieldHour

8-9pm #SomersetHour

8-9pm #SouthWestHour

8-9pm #SunderlandHour

8-9pm #WakefieldHour

8-9pm #WarringtonHour

9-10pm #ThirskHour

Location-based UK Twitter Hours on Fridays

10-11am #ClevelandHour

11am-12pm #LondonHour

11am-12pm #NewcastleHour

11am-12pm #YorkBizHour

9-10pm #NorthWestHour

Why are there fewer Twitter Hours on Fridays? Because it’s the weekend, and most professionals want to switch off for a day or two and enjoy their time away from work!

Ongoing UK Twitter Hours

On top of the many location-based Twitter Hours, you can also find some ongoing, everyday Twitter Hours that are hosted by individuals and companies. We’ve highlighted four of our favourites below to try out – add them to your social media schedules.

8-10am #Back2WorkHour – every Monday morning

12-1pm #UKBizLunch – every day
2-3pm #BizHour – every day
3-4pm #B2BHour – every day

Have we missed any?

We want to create an exhaustive and up-to-the-minute list of UK Twitter Hours, so if you know of any that we have missed, don’t hesitate to get in touch or leave a comment below.

Please note that all Hours, times and dates were accurate at the time of publishing. Busy lifestyles, lack of engagement and changing schedules can all influence whether or not a particular Twitter Hour runs from week to week.

]]>7749 WordPress plugins every small business needs to usehttps://muffinmarketing.com/wordpress-plugins-small-business/
Fri, 17 Mar 2017 11:11:11 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=744If you are running a local business website on WordPress, then the chances are that you already know about the vast array of WordPress plugins and options for customisation. Such flexibility has made WordPress the world’s most popular content management system – not only for small businesses, but for some of the world’s leading publishers. … →

]]>If you are running a local business website on WordPress, then the chances are that you already know about the vast array of WordPress plugins and options for customisation. Such flexibility has made WordPress the world’s most popular content management system – not only for small businesses, but for some of the world’s leading publishers.

Live chat software like Zopim is perfect for small businesses. Allowing you to chat to your customers in real time, this service is free for a fourteen-day trial, but there is a free ‘Lite’ option if you don’t want to cough up for the service after a fortnight.

You really don’t need to spend thousands of pounds if you want to open an online store. WooCommerce, a plugin owned and maintained by the makers of WordPress, powers an impressive 30% of all online stores, and it’s easy to set up and integrate into your existing website.

If you want to manage your studio, salon or clinic and offer online appointment booking, then Appointments+ is the ideal solution. This plugin allows you to take control of your scheduling, add biography pages, take online payments and send email notifications to users.

Whether you set up your website from scratch or you’re working with a web design agency, the chances are that you’ll want to move servers after a while. With Duplicator, you can move your entire WordPress website from one location to another – backing up, duplicating and transferring your files, themes and posts wherever you want them to be.

If you rely on content marketing and post regular blogs to your website, then the chances are that you’ll want to share your content on more than one occasion. With this plugin, your old blogs will be reposted automatically to expand your reach.

Running an event or want to let your customers know what you’ll be up to for the foreseeable future? With Events, you’ll be able to show a calendar on your website and fill it with your latest – and upcoming – events.

If you want to introduce affiliate marketing to your website to make money from your visitors, then ThirstyAffiliates is the plugin for you. Not only can you cloak links and auto insert links into your posts, but you can manage your revenues and get a clear indication of how much you’re going to make. A word of warning, however, is that you should not over-exert affiliate links on your website. Not only can they appear spammy, but if you’re sending visitors away from your website to an affiliate link, you could be missing out on a new potential customer.

]]>7445 ways local businesses can boost organic Facebook likeshttps://muffinmarketing.com/small-business-facebook-likes/
Wed, 15 Mar 2017 11:11:31 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=742If your small business is on social media, then you’ll know exactly how difficult it can be to grow your audience. Of course, your friends, family, colleagues and customers will be happy to drop you some Facebook likes in support of your move to the internet, but the chances of growing a local, relevant audience … →

]]>If your small business is on social media, then you’ll know exactly how difficult it can be to grow your audience. Of course, your friends, family, colleagues and customers will be happy to drop you some Facebook likes in support of your move to the internet, but the chances of growing a local, relevant audience are slim without investing your time, money and patience.

Below, we’ve put together five ways that you can boost your organicFacebook likes and traffic from Facebook for your local business, so read on to find out more.

Stop automating every post

Although automation is great for periods when you don’t have the time to post yourself, there is significant value in delivering a human touch on social media – particularly for small businesses where management and staff members are at the front and centre of daily operations. Take group photographs at functions and wear-what-you-want days, make funny memes and share personal stories about your business. Not everything has to be corporate!

Target your posts

You may already be familiar with post targeting if you’ve used Facebook Ads, but the practice works just as well for organic content. You can tailor your posts to specific demographics – or relevant customers – based on their age, gender, location and interest, so try out targeting and see what it can do for you. The more relevant your posts are to your audience, the more likely you are to get a share or a comment – thus extending your reach and increasing the chances of new organic likes.

Post when your competitors don’t

There are a whole host of experts online claiming to know the best time to share your content to Facebook, but sometimes your engagement levels come down to nothing other than luck. However, one way to maximise your chances of success is to post when your competitors are offline – or even when they’re asleep! Posting at non-peak times has a range of benefits, and recent changes to Facebook’s algorithms mean that your content doesn’t necessarily have to be brand new to appear on your audiences’ timelines.

There really is no set formula for boosting your organic Facebook likes and engagement levels on Facebook, but taking advantage of our five techniques should certainly offer a step in the right direction.

]]>7428 benefits of outsourcing your social media managementhttps://muffinmarketing.com/outsourcing-social-media-management/
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 10:30:38 +0000https://muffinmarketing.com/?p=727The benefits of social media for small and medium-sized businesses are endless, not least for increasing brand exposure, generating new business leads and improving customer-business relation. However, if you run a small business single-handedly, or you’re part of a small team, the chances are that you don’t have time to get through the simplest of … →

]]>The benefits of social media for small and medium-sized businesses are endless, not least for increasing brand exposure, generating new business leads and improving customer-business relation. However, if you run a small business single-handedly, or you’re part of a small team, the chances are that you don’t have time to get through the simplest of everyday business tasks – never mind think about what you need to post on your Twitter and Facebook channels to stay relevant! That’s where outsourcing social media management makes sense.

What does outsourcing social media management involve?

If you’re wondering what the process of outsourcing social media management involves, you’ve come to the right place. Simply put, outsourcing social media management means handing over the metaphorical keys to your social media accounts (like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) to a third party social media management company, who’ll spend time researching your industry and posting relevant content that speaks to your audience. Outsourcing social media management can be expensive, so it’s important you find a high-quality social media management company you can trust at a price that you can afford.

Below, we’ve put together eight reasons why you should outsource your social media management in 2017.

You can focus on the good stuff

Instead of spending an hour or two a week coming up with topics for social media posts and researching your industry and competition, you should instead be focusing on the most important aspects of your business – namely finances, customer service and employee satisfaction. Instead of wasting time trying to master a new skill that you know little about, you should leave your social media to the experts and spend more time doing the stuff you’re good at.

You’ll get expert assistance

We all know how to send a tweet and update our Facebook status, but do you really know how to target your campaigns to maximise success and generate the business leads you desire? If not, you have two options – spend months researching into social media trends and improving your knowledge or outsource your social media to somebody who knows exactly what they’re doing.

Your staff won’t be distracted

We’ve all done it… hand over access to our company’s social media platforms to our new, millennial employee. “Oh, they’ll understand what to do, they’re young,” we say. Chances are, they’ll use their time to chat with friends and surf the internet – not push targeted, well-researched content to your customers and potential business leads.

You’ll save money

Hiring a marketing manager or social media expert for your brand can be costly – especially if you don’t have the budget to blow on something that doesn’t guarantee results. Outsourcing your management makes the company accountable for your success and removes the risks which would be associated with hiring a new member of staff. Outsourcing guarantees a professional service.

You’ll get the right marketing mix

As a business owner, you want to maximise your sales. However, when it comes to social media, you should find a careful mix of sales-based tweets and tweets that offer value to your audience. Blog articles, statistics, images and videos are all as equally important as your sales messages, so outsourcing your social media to a team that can balance your sales messages with fun, engaging content is one of the best ways to avoid a timeline full of ‘buy now’ posts.

You can beat your competitors

If your competitors are posting cat videos or, heaven forbid, using their social media platforms to talk to their friends and family, then you’ve got an opportunity to get ahead of the competition. Working with a reputable social media management company can give you an edge if you want to beat your competitors, as they will be able to find ways to target your audience and promote your products or services in a way that works best.

You won’t miss out on posting content

Let’s face it. Running a business can be challenging – particularly when you’re responsible for managing staff members, rotas, marketing and finances. With a social media manager, you know that your social media streams will be readily updated every day, so you’ll never miss out on an opportunity to put your name in front of potential customers.

You don’t have to research into competitors and industry trends

While you might be aware of what your competitors are doing, the chances are that you don’t have time to sit down and analyse their digital marketing strategies in order to benefit your own. With a social media management company, in-depth competitor research will be carried out in order to maximise your chances of engagement success. It’s a task any business owner would find boring – for a social media manager, it’s part of the job and allows them to deliver a high-quality service.

Summary

While there’s certainly no exact art to getting your social media profiles where they need to be, relying on a professional company to market your products and services is one of the best ways to take your small or medium-sized business in the right direction. Although it’s possible to manage your own social media as well as your business, the chances are that it will end up costing you more money and time than it’s worth – which is why outsourcing makes sense.